Project Description

I would like to start forums in Connecticut and through out many of the cities in Connecticut to combat Teenage Reckless Driving run by Teens focused towards Teens. I believe that many teenagers in our area were greatly affected by the many lives lost due to reckless driving, most noteably the crash in Bristol in August killing four area teens from four different high schools. So much time is taken in schools to combat drunk driving and driving under the influence, but everyday teenagers are on the road, speeding, playing road games, and generally not being safe. If there were discussions bringing in adults in the area that lost their children in such crashes, teens themselves talking about the loss of their friends, their brothers, sisters, cousins, I believe that it would cause an impact and cause teens to think twice before speeding through the yellow light, or taking a corner at 90mph with 3 others in the car. The decisions the teen driver make behind the wheel effect many people's lives. I would like this forum to have the same effect as Mock Crash and talks by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but with a much different focus, and that is safety everyday and your responisbilty to yourself but more importantly to every other person in your car. Reckless driving has taken many lives in our state in the past year and I think the forums and steps taken to stop it are too far away from the problem. Adults and legislation can only help so much, the key to stopping the problem is getting inside of the heads of the reckless drivers and impacting them, making them think twice when they are behind the wheel.

Project Description

<>Upon entering high school, I created a club called the Juvenile Diabetes Awareness Club (JDAC) to bring awareness of diabetes and to raise money for diabetes organizations. In three years, JDAC has raised over $35,000. This money is being used to send children to diabetes camp for 2 weeks of valuable education, not to mention fun! Many of these children may not have been able to monetarily afford this. I hope to share the success of this club with students around the country. In addition, I started a program in the spring of 2007 through a grant I obtained, called “Smart Driving for the Diabetic Teenager”. This is a program that I hope with empower the importance of safe, smart driving to all teenagers. Through my personal web site (www.sarahyourman.com), I try to motivate others to stay active and healthy while managing a chronic illness. By providing this program, Diabetics will receive the education necessary for safe driving, Statistically approximately 176,500 people aged 20 years or younger have diabetes representing 22 percent of this age group. <>One of the biggest moments in a teenager's life is to get their driver's license. While it gives the new driver a tremendous amount of freedom, it brings on a tremendous amount of responsibility. Driving is a very complex skill but with diabetes, they can be affected with changes to their physical, emotional, and mental condition. Some of this changes include symptoms such as, feeling sleepy or dizzy, feeling confused, having blurred vision or possibly lose consciousness or have a seizure while driving. Driving with a low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) is the equivalent of driving drunk! The goal for this grant is to provide the necessary education to teenagers with diabetes. There are diabetes camps around the country that employ diabetics as counselors. There is usually a “staff week” that trains them for the exciting summer of activities, but can also provide them with the necessary tools for their everyday life. The educational training session will address the following issues: --To avoid driving with low blood glucose, check your blood glucose level before getting behind the wheel. --If it's low, treat the hypoglycemia and wait until you're at a safer level before driving. ----Keep your glove compartment stocked with glucose tablets and snacks. --If you feel light-headed or low while driving, pull over immediately and check your glucose. Treat the hypoglycemia and don't start out again until your glucose rises again.  

Project Description

In May of 2005, my 14th Month old daughter Madison was killed in a back over accident by another parent at her daycare, the driver could not see my daughter in the blind zone of her large suburban. Since Madison's death I formed the MFC Foundation, "Montanans for Children Foundation" With the main goal to help in bettering the lives of Children by supporting legislation that aims to keep children safe and educate parents and new drivers on the dangers there children face in and around vehicles. Have spoke to drivers education students, speaking of my daughters accident, hoping to prevent others. Have plans to speak to numerous schools in the coming 2007-2008 school year in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota. Also have gained the support of all congressman in Montana, for the support of Senate bill 694, the Kids and Cars safety act. Hope to countinue to educate young drivers of the dangers young children face around cars, by giving speeches to drivers education students and parents alike.

Project Description

The youth of DJ Center for Youth, Inc. would like to host a Car Show Extravaganza to better educate their peers on driving safely and inform them about new legislation. Effective July 1, 2007 the Indiana law will change and it will require ALL passengers in ALL vehicles in ALL positions to wear safety belts. It has been brought to the attention of the youth that their peers do not like to wear seatbelts and even some of the kids at the Center admitted not liking to wear seatbelts.Therefore, the question was asked, how do we change the perception/image of seatbelts and how do we deliver the message in an impactful and fun manner. Nonetheless, the idea of a Car Show which would include driving tip handouts for all attendees to take home, giveaways, food, and entertainment was the answer. The mentality of the youth was, you want teens to come to an event to discuss safe driving, get them there with things of interest to them. "Videos (i.e. educational, instructional) are not fun, it does not provide an opportunity to go out with friends enjoy the day and learn something. We (teens) are always suggested to go out and get involved, we would if the event planners would make the event appealing" (Quote by student). The youth's plan of action is as follows:

• Obtain driving materials that could be handed out from insurance companies, driving schools, and Indiana's Bureau of Motor Vehicles;
• Contact the local Students Against Distructive Decision Making (SADD) Chapter;
• Giveaways - local stores;
• Food (grill out, burgers and hotdogs);
• Entertainment - invite the local radio station and have the radio personality host the event; and
• Have categories for the car show so the attendees could vote for their favorite car.

The event will be held in the afternoon in the parking lot of a local park or school. It would be a one time event. If it rains out the extravaganza will be held the following weekend. Cars interested in participating in the car show would pay an entry fee.The entry fee would cover the costs of the meat for the grill, prizes for the winner, and other costs associated with hosting the event.  If additional money is raised from the Car Show Extravagaza it would be used for the following year so it could be bigger and better.      

Project Description

My sister and I have developed a myspace site call "Teens Against Careless Driving". We promote safe driving by sending messages and bulletins to teens. We have almost 16,000 teen friends acrossed the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Our site contains videos of unsafe driving practices that get the teens attention. We then send them safe driving tips and information on driving schools. We also do a few fun things like listing our Top Friends every week. On the serious side we have memorial areas where the teens can honor their lost friends and loved ones. The teens find this comforting in their time of grief. To get a better understanding of what we do please visit our site. http://www.myspace.com/t_a_c_d Thank you for you efforts to promote community service.

Project Description

If $500 were given to me to promote smart and safe driving, I would use the money to spread awareness. After researching teen driving, I would put together a brochure with pictures and statistics of deaths, injuries, and more terrible results of unsafe and unsmart teen driving. I would also express the dangers of not buckling up, texting, or talking on a phone while driving through posters and t-shirts. I would get a large group, between 20 and 25 people to be exact, and one day after school, I would stand by the parking lot of our school and talk to students leaving the parking lot. I would use about $100 of my budget here; those who were buckled up would receive a candy bar out of a large variety I would have with me. Those not wearing their seatbelts would get a brochure or some other type of polite reminder reminding them to buckle up. To show to others the horrific results of texting, I would make a t-shirt or some other advertising device saying "Terrifyingly Extraordinary Xtreme Tragedies ....result from TEXTing."

Project Description

This is going to be a very in depth thing, though the day that it happens may not seem that hard to set up, but the ideas behind the event are important. It starts with myself, and any other recruits that I have helping myself in the cafeteria of my school, hosting 3500 students of more. You walk into the doorway of the cafeteria, or any of them being that there are numerous, and immediately you look down and see 16 paper-cut outs of bodies taped to the ground, representing the 16 teenagers that die everyday from automobile related accidents. They all lead to a long table infront of a prominent wall of the cafeteria. Each body, lined up and spaced to the table, will have a different fact on it. Each fact will relay a stronger and stronger emotion to the reader, in other words will will have a greater meaning than the one before, until the reader ultimately arrives at the table where myself and a couple others will be sitting, and sees the giant poster behind the table saying "I will not become a statistic". The table will be covered in pins, wristbands, bumper-stickers and window clings, and other parafenalia, I dont know if that is spelled right, that represents KTD. Myself and my co-workers will relay the message of KTD and how the students can sign up at KTD.com to pledge their safe driving, but the main purpose of the event is the friend pledge sign-up. On the sign that says "I will not become a statistic" there will a lot of other space, a lot, for groups of friends to sign, or even just individuals. Signing the poster is a pledge to be a safe driver for your friends and your family. But we will encourage signing in groups of friends because of the great impact friendships have on individuals during highschool. It is a simple promise declaring that if you care about your life, your friends or your family, you will be a safe driver, and not become one of the 16 teenagers that dies everyday. To entice students to start signing, the first 15 students from every lunch period to sign the poster will recieve a free t-shirt with a KTD emblem, and Text that says "I will not become a statistic". We will pass out free key chains, and wristbands, etc. to all. This is where the 500 dollars would be needed. The tshirts would be 500 dollars for about 50-60 tshirts, somewhere in that ballpark, and the more tshirts I could get the better, highschoolers like t-shirts. I have all the other supplies, but I would be ordering the tshirts from customink.com. The only thing that might change about this event, is that I might have to do it outside because so many kids are going outside for lunch because of the weather.
Thank you for your time,
Tommy Bradshaw
Keep The Drive

Project Description

Teens like to get information from their friends and other teens. They don't lecture like parents and teachers. But you have to be where teens are to reach them. My idea is to go to places like movie theaters, bowling alleys, beaches & pools, and fast food restaurants to get safe driving information in the hands of teens.

I'm working with my local movie theater to come in and set up an informational table in the lobby. The manager will allow me to come in on a Saturday night when most teenagers will be going to the movies. The theater has plasma TVs set up all around the lobby and they will play a teen driving safety DVD the night I'm there. Since customers have to wait in the lobby before going to their movie and go there for snacks, it's a good place to set up a table.

I got the safety materials from an insurance agent. She's also getting the safety DVD for me to give the movie theater to play. I'm going to get balloons and decorations to dress up the table and get the teens' attention. I'm also going to have items to give away on the table from the insurance agent (key chains, road atlas', calendars, etc.). If I can get items and gift cards donated from local businesses, I'll set up a raffle and give a ticket to people who stop at my table.

Hopefully I'll see people I know from school who will stop by the table to talk while they're waiting and I can talk to them about driving safety. I'll also have a brochure for parents who come to the table telling them how to talk to their teens about driving. And even if no one comes over to talk, they will see the safety video on the lobby TVs. If only one teen hears the message, that's one more teen paying attention on the road. But I think there will be hundreds of teens and adults who get the message which will get them thinking about safer driving habits and the consequences of unsafe driving.