Catasauqua High School works to foster strong relationships in the community. This, in turn, leads to a solid support system between the school and the outside community.

CHS TV Production and Media Club students Haylie Toth, Chloe Moyer and Julianna Grate created short commercials for the local businesses that sponsor the school’s Student of the Semester program. These community partners include Catasauqua businesses Pie’s On Pizzeria, Biery’s Port Auto Works and The Gas House Dance Hall, as well as Palermo’s Italian Grill, Northampton; Texas Roadhouse, Trexlertown; and GR Electric LLC, Whitehall.

Not only did this project serve to thank the community partners, but it was a fun assignment for the students to learn new skills, reported CHS teacher and club adviser Leslie Estrada.

“The information in our videos includes a general idea of where to contact the business, their location and what the place is all about,” Chloe said. “We added a fun twist throughout each video to keep the viewers entertained but still informed of the business, which was the most important aspect of this project.”

“We made sure to highlight their key services and how they guarantee great customer service,” Haylie noted.

According to Julianna, they also included how some of the businesses have supported various CHS projects and fundraisers.

The students were in charge of planning and producing the videos. Chloe reported they wanted to make sure each commercial was unique to the business, while still keeping people interested.

“Each commercial production process was similar in the sense that we had to come up with a brief storyboard before going and filming at each location,” Haylie mentioned.

“Each of us went through planning out the script for each business to be able to go out to film the commercials in person,” Chloe said.

“The process was pretty simple when filming. We just drove to the places we needed and filmed,” Julianna noted. “Not too many people were there when we were filming, so it made it easier.”

Haylie mentioned they had to scope out the locations to find the perfect angles and make sure the sound on the recordings was crisp and clear.

“Once the clips were all filmed, we all took turns to edit different videos for each business,” Chloe said. “When we finished editing the videos, we looked over each video to look for any mistakes, and then we finished the process.”

“The only part that was a little hard was getting all the clips together to edit, but other than that, it was a fun experience,” Julianna added.

Haylie noted they had to take a different approach with the GE Electric commercial, due to the nature of the business.

“We had to improvise with that commercial, but it turned out fantastic and it helped us to gain the skills and knowledge that we needed when adapting to filming under different circumstances,” she said.

These commercials were played during the virtual Students of the Semester ceremony at CHS. They are also being posted to the CHS and Catasauqua Area School District social media pages.

The Students of the Semester program recognizes students for positive employability skills, such as problem solving/critical thinking, communication, collaboration, leadership, professionalism/work ethic, global awareness, career management and information technology.

Make sure you check out these commercials on the CASD and CHS Facebook pages, and be sure to frequent these businesses that are working to support the youth in the community.