For those of you who missed it, you must see the performance on the Ovation Channel (125) on Austar. Go to www.rock

challenge.com.au where they list the coming performances on Ovation.

The KI troupe performs at the Entertainment Centre this Friday night. Good luck.

Are you a good role model?

This year’s Kangaroo Island Rock Challenge Performance confronts the issue of drink driving. Sitting down with students during the 2006 Eisteddfod at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre the issue was raised by them of the huge issue of drink driving on KI and so the seed was planted in producers’ Tracie Heinrich and Kimberly Wood’s creative minds.

For those who attended the performance last Friday night I think as a group this issue has been hit head on and the message is definitely out there questioning all those who are guilty of driving under the influence.

As co-host Alex Clark, who is very passionate about this subject having a friend on the mainland lose an arm because he was driving under the influence earlier this year, tells us in her introduction to the performance “Drink driving: it’s a major issue, globally, nationally, in our communities. Everyday we hear about the horrifying tragedies of lives lost.

It could be your best friend. Where will it end? Before getting behind the wheel, are you thinking to yourself, can I live with the consequences? Because you should be.”

The performance starts with happiness & energy in a party mode scene but a few of the party goers decide to venture off and look for some excitement and decide to go for a drive with a drunk girl taking the drivers seat - dragging along one girl not so keen. Of course the crash occurs and this young girl loses her life!

The aftermath of this is played out on stage but many of the performers through this have been able to feel the real pain of wasteful life lost and the inexcusable and unacceptable behaviour which so many in our community do every week.

Many of the students feel strongly that it is not just the teenagers that should be looked at for this behaviour but the many adults even the senior members of our community who are showing our children as role models that this is okay – well it is not!

As the entire 90-strong Rock Eisteddfod Team head to Adelaide this Friday to perform their strong message to the state, they are looking forward to the fun and excitement that the day will bring and the chance to meet and make friends with many other students from across the state who have spent just as many hours preparing and fundraising to be able to have this opportunity. The KI eisteddfod is totally self-funded and so both the community and the schools have been outstanding again this year in supporting this event.

Tracie Heinrich