Westmeath family win national prize for Covid film
A local family who made the most of the internet during the Covid-19 lockdowns have been rewarded for their innovative approach by a category win in a national competition.
Celebrating its 10th year, Trend Micro’s What’s Your Story? annual video competition posed a fitting question to Ireland’s youth, ‘How did the internet help you get through this past year?’ – and the King family from Ballinagore won the ‘What’s Your Story?’ section.
Filmed and edited by Shane King, their video is entitled ‘My Day the New Digital Way’.
“Twelve months ago we got up, we went to school, had after school activities and visited our grandparents in their homes,” said Shane.
“That was normal as we knew it then. Life dramatically changed for everyone across the world and in our homemade video we depict these changes.
“The classroom turned into a Zoom room, group activities were held through a laptop. The simple visit for a cuppa with our grandparents became a whole new experience for us, and for them!
“The internet became our communicator, our educator, our social outlet and our link to the outside world. Our lives now revolve around a digital way every day.”
Trend Micro is a cloud security firm, and its What’s Your Story? competition is an annual highlight in its Internet Safety for Kids and Families (ISKF) programme.
It is designed to give young people a platform to educate themselves and others on responsible use of the internet and it is aimed at primary and secondary school students.
Entrants were required to submit a max 2-minute video in answer to the competition question, and then become advocates for their message, encouraging their peers, friends, family and communities to view and vote for their entry.
The children had to come up with the concept for their submissions, and also had to film and edit them.