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<>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.  

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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.

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The Shattered Dreams Project consists of two different events, the Mock Car Crash and the Every 15 minutes project.
The Every 15 Minutes project is named after the statistic that says that in every 15 minutes, a teenager is killed or seriously injured in an alcohol related collision in the United States. The every 15 minutes project comes before the mock car crash. On (Monday) November 19 a police officer will read the scenario of the car crash that took place on the morning announcements. Next, the police officer and a grip reaper will go to different class rooms, read the scenario to the class, and will pull out pre-selected students who were part of the accident. After all the students that were involved with the crash have been pulled out of class, they will march across campus to the front of the school. The students at our school will see these students (who aren’t allowed to speak) and realize that it can happen to anyone. The students that were pulled out will leave the campus and will not return to school the next day.
The next part of the project is the Mock Car Crash. This event will take place on (Wednesday) November 21. On this day we will stage a mock car crash in the front of our school. A mock car crash is a dramatized portrayal of the events and consequences resulting in an alcohol-related collision. All agencies (fire department, police department, EMS, etc.) will respond to the collision as if it were a real accident while the students watch. When it is learned that drinking is involved and that fatalities have resulted, the police establish a crime scene investigation and perform a DUI arrest on the young intoxicated driver. Finally, the coroner arrives to perform the grim task of placing the victims of the crash into body bags for transport to the morgue.
The Shattered Dreams project is a good visual reminder that will help students see the consequences that result from drinking and driving and other poor driving habits. By doing this project we hope to decrease the number of injuries and fatalities on Hawaii’s roads.

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Purpose: To encourage the students of S. P. Waltrip High School to wear seat belts and take all precautionary efforts in order to driving safely. The DriveSafe Waltrip Campaign is a month-long program designed to encourage the students of S. P. Waltrip High School drive safely. This project offers a way for students to voice their opinions on the dangers of driving:while intoxicated, while under the influence of an intoxicating drug, without a safety belt or restraint, and without proper identification.Students will participate in a school-wide competition. Participants may enter under three (3) categories: Category 1 – Poetry. Category 2 – Short Story. Category 3 – Short Skit. Requirements: Category 1 and 2Must be typed. Times New Roman. Font 12. May be decorated, must be double spaced, must be less than two pages Category 3Must be five to ten minutes, Typed copy. Must be typed. Times New Roman. Font 12. Prizes: First Place: TBA, Second Place: TBA, Third Place: TBA. After the month long DriveSafe Waltrip Campaign, a mural, painted through the hallways of the school, will be unveiled before the student body created by the school Art Department depicting the overview of this project.

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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.      

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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.

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We have been working to educate our school on safe driving practices. With this grant we would host a dinner for teens and their parents that would be a night to remember. We would have a dinner free for all who attend (food gets people in the door in our town) and then we would have two guest speakers here to present the statistics and practices that apply to teen drivers. We would then have a skit by our Drama department, games for both teens and parents to work on teamwork and communication, and complete the night with an interactive exercise where parents are instructed on how to teach their teens to drive and how to instill good driving habits in teens, and where the teen and the parents draft a contract with each other and sign it agreeing to safe driving practices and behaviors. There have been many studies that have shown that parents are the number one influence in a teens life, and that if parents take an active role in teaching their teen to drive the teen is more likely to drive safely. This night would be one to remember and would effect not only those teens and parents who came to dinner, but their siblings, the students who help to produce the evening, the adults who supervise the evening and everyone in our community. WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU CAN HELP? As part of this project we are collecting one key for each and every teen that died last year in a car accident. That is over 5,000 keys! We are making a sign with these keys that will hang in our school so that every time a student passes it they will realize how important driving safe really is. If you would like to help by sending in a key or contacting a politician or famous person you know the address for, send all keys to Mansfield High School "Think and Drive Program" <<Contact Information edited out by DS Staff>>. Thank you!

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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.

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My idea is to promote safe driving among teens through a series of rallies in different high schools, and have schools offer behind the wheel training and driver's education. The rallies will discuss, and show videos that deal with the things that take away people's attention away from driving. Also the rallies will have skits that show the different causes of accidents, such as cell phones, make-up, reading while driving, trying to pick up something while driving, and paying more attentions to friends in the car more than driving. Lastly random students will be picked to miss school for a one week, while having the students in the school believe that they died in an accident. This was done by a high school in my area and it worked perfectly. Once people realize what will be lost from not driving safely, they will try their best and it will stick with them for life.