YHS Video Project helps

recruit sheriff’s deputies

Yosemite High School Report

- Photo by - EARLENE WARD
Students Matt Drake, Kim Vanderputten and Josh Figatner created
recruitment video for Madera County Sheriff's Department.

When representatives from the Madera County Sheriff’s Department attend job fairs and recruitment seminars and visit area police academies, they will have a new tool to use in their efforts to bring new deputies to the department.

Three Yosemite High School seniors recently completed a recruitment video for the department. Matt Duke, Josh Figatner and Kim Vanderputten spent several weeks producing and editing the video. They worked with Sheriff-Coroner John Anderson and the department’s public information officer, Rita Valdivia.

The students, their parents and Yosemite High staff members viewed the film recently during a special showing at YHS.

Sheriff Anderson is very pleased with the video. “The students did a fantastic job,” he said, “I’m impressed.” He plans to show the film to the Madera Rotary Club in the near future.

PIO Valdivia says she looks forward to having the video instead of the display boards she used to use when she was recruiting.

The video highlights the county in which the deputies work. Sheriff Anderson says Madera County sheriff’s deputies have the opportunity to work in an area with beautiful scenery, something many other counties can’t offer.

Another advantage Madera County offers its deputies is the opportunity to be involved in a lot of specialty areas early in their career. In many counties, deputies spend their first years working in the jail. In Madera County, they begin on patrol. Other opportunities open to them soon after they are hired are the K-9 unit, SWAT team (Special Weapons and Tactics), the agriculture crimes unit and the Narcotics Enforcement Team.

YHS Principal Steve Raupp said school officials appreciate the opportunity to produce the film for the sheriff’s department. “This gives our students real world experience and that is invaluable,” he said.

Larry Pesetski, who teaches the video class, said his students have gone far beyond anything he had ever thought. This is the second year of the class and the students have produced a number of videos for area agencies.

“What we accomplish with the equipment we have is wonderful,” he said.

The projects are great for the students, Mr. Pesetski emphasized. “The students begin to understand how difficult it is to shoot and edit film. It’s not just glitter and glamour, it’s lots of hard work,” he told the parents.

Students look at video in a much different light after they complete the class, Mr. Pesetski said.

After the experience, at least one of the students, Josh Figatner, said he is thinking about a career in video production. All of the students agreed that it was a good experience and they enjoyed going out into the field to shoot the film. Kim Vanderputten said they had a lot of freedom in producing the film, “It was cool being able to do what we wanted to do.”

Sheriff Anderson decided to ask the video class to produce the film after seeing the work the students did last year for the Every 15 Minutes program. He marveled at the fact that they shot film one day and had a completed video to show the next day.

“I was impressed by this and I had been wanting a recruitment film, so it was a good opportunity,” he said.

Among the agencies for which YHS students have produced videos are state Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Sierra Ambulance Service, Alcohol Beverage Control Board, Yosemite National Park and the American Cancer Society. Students have also produced a number of videos for various classes and departments at YHS.