DAYTON — Kayla Kohler, of Wapakoneta, a student at Botkins High School, was among five area high school seniors who have each earned $1,000 for college tuition by crafting the brightest ideas for boosting blood donations in the 2017 Community Blood Center/Vectren Lead The Way Creative Scholarship competition.

The applicants were challenged to design a winning marketing campaign for a high school blood drive. They submitted campaign slogans, explained why they would encourage fellow students to donate, and expressed their campaign themes with one or more innovative and artistic marketing techniques.

Kohler’s goal was to encourage high-energy, high-volume, music-minded support for donating with her theme, “Keep the Beat Pump’n.”

“The real question here is, ‘Why would students not be excited about giving the gift of life?’” she wrote. “I’ve created an upbeat theme to spark them into donating.”

Kohler created a front-and-back T-shirt design that includes red blood bags and tubing that form EKG lines and a heart. She included photos of herself modeling the T-shirt.

“The thought behind this is to demonstrate how donating your blood is a celebration of life that brings members together,” she wrote, “and what’s a better way to experience this kind of connection than through music?”

CBC’s Kathy Pleiman presented the award certificate to Kohler during a student assembly, May 10, at the school.

“I feel privileged,” Kohler said. “I had a lot of ideas, but I decided to go with this one because it was the coolest and the most appropriate to our generation. It was natural because of everyone’s love of music.”

Kohler plans to study nursing at Wright State University.

Other winners were Aliya Stine from Newton High School, Karilyn Willenbrink from Miami East High School and Krista Felzien and Evan Binkley, both from Northeastern High School.