See It: The Community being helped

I'm graduating from high school in June of 2007. My graduating class has shortened the year to just "007" and planned activities all year around the James Bond theme. For example, our prom theme is "007 Diamonds Are Forever".

In an effort to promote safe driving, we're planning a final James Bond themed event called "Casino Royale-Don't leave your life to chance, drive smart!" Teens take a lot of chances when driving; talking on the phone, turning in front oncoming vehicles, speeding around school. The risk they're taking involves them, friends in their vehicle, and others on the road. Games also involve the risk of winning or losing. The event theme combines the risks of driving with playing games to provide education in a fun atmosphere.

To set this up, you need to have a location. This could be a school gym, community recreation center, YMCA/health club, or private location supervised by adults. You also need to have game stations where teens can play. Ours is a casino theme with poker tables, a roulette table, blackjack tables, and bingo. Oh, and you can't use real money to play with...that's gambling and is illegal. But you can use fake money or chips that don't have any monetary value attached. If you didn't want to do a casino game theme, you could use other games like Risk, Pictionary, and Operation and tie them into driving scenarios and safety tips. You can ask your friends which games they have and rent/buy those you need. You'll need to arrange for delivery to the location where you'll hold the event. I'm working with my friends, parents, and a couple of local sponsors to help get the equipment, supplies, and volunteers to work the night of the event. You then need to publicize the event about a month before, especially if it is around the busy prom and graduation season.

There isn't a charge for teens to come and play. If you have to rent a space, you may have to charge a couple of dollars for admission if you can't find a business to sponsor it. Potential sponsors to talk to are insurance agents, car dealerships, doctors, and hospitals. They all understand the risk of unsafe driving. If you need to cover other costs like printing brochures or give away items, you could sell concessions (water, soda, candy, popcorn).

Before your event, you need to decide how you're going to give your safe driving message. We're going to greet our guests with "We're glad you made it here safely!". When they leave, we're giving them a key chain with a business card size list of safe driving tips attached. We'll say goodbye with "Have a great summer. Don't take chances, drive smart!" We're also going to change the name and cards of our BINGO game to DRIVE. After each game, the person calling the numbers will give driving statistics and safety tips. We're also going to have karaoke in our cabaret area. The person working the music player will ask the crowd questions about driving in between songs for a chance for them to win small prizes.

Good Luck with your game night to improve the chances of saving lives through safer driving!