One week from today, Hoquiam High School junior Kennedy Gwin will be in Chicago. She will be there to present a staggering statistic to the 2,000 attendees of the Lifesavers Conference on traffic safety issues, one of two students in the state selected to take part on a panel about best practices for getting the safety message to teen-agers.
She will tell the conference that in 2012, 3,328 people were killed because of distracted driving. As she rattles off numbers and statistics, she adds that more than 421,000 people are injured each year from the same type of inattentiveness. One can tell that she has gone through these numbers over and over, presenting them to students multiple times to ensure they understand the importance of safety.
“The Lifesavers Conference is the premier traffic safety conference in the United States dedicated to reducing roadway deaths and injuries.” said Washington Governor Jay Inslee. “The conference is huge, drawing close to 2,000 participants, so to be selected to present on their school projects is a very big deal. They deserve to be proud.”
According to a press release, Washington state’s Traffic Safety Commission was tasked with recruiting two students as speakers for a conference panel on promising practices in peer-led high school traffic safety projects.
The commission sponsored a statewide competition, inviting schools that were active in promoting traffic safety, to submit a video.
“We know that high school students are at a developmental stage where they are defining who they are and looking to their fellow students for clues and ideas,” said Darrin Grondel, state Traffic Safety Commission director. “For this reason the research shows that peer led educational efforts are more effective and we feel strongly that this program is working to raise awareness and change behaviors among teens.”
Gwin’s video was selected and though it was public for a while on YouTube, it has been removed until after the conference.
Charlotte Helland, Gwin’s cheer coach will accompany her. Four students from around the country have been chosen to present videos and speeches they made at their respective schools. Hunter Watson from University High School in Spokane will join her as a second Washington delegate. In addition the other two presenters are from the same school in Illinois.
“I’m excited to meet all the people (at the conference),” said Gwin. She is also excited to meet her counterpart, Hunter. “It will be nice to be surrounded by people who want to make difference in the world.” She looks forward to bringing back different ideas to share with her school.
Distracted driving includes texting, talking on the cell phone and eating and drinking, but Gwin said they concentrated the emphasis of their campaign on texting. She reminded that texting at a stop sign is also illegal in Washington.
For the past five years, members of the Hoquiam cheer team have campaigned to students, educating them about the perils of distracted driving. By their estimates, through observation and surveys, they’ve seen a reduction of 32 percent. They handed out T-shirts, thumb-bands (similar to rubber wrist bands, only thumb-size) – which were visual no-text reminders – put up signs, hosted a carnival and made a presentation during a basketball game, making basketball fans, as well as the opposing team, pledge to not text and drive.
Five years ago, explained Helland, one of her cheerleaders’ grandmothers, who worked for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, approached her to help educate the kids. As part of the pilot program the grandmother made a video using the girls on the cheer squad. The school chose from 15 different tasks and when five where completed, it received a grant from State Farm in the amount of $500.
Following that program, the school participated in “Project Ignition” and the school finished in the top 10 in the nation, Helland said. They won $7,000 and as a result Helland accompanied approximately seven girls to Denver.
And now Helland and Gwin leave for Chicago. “I’m just so excited for her. It’s going to be an experience she will never forget and I’m lucky enough to do it with her.”
There are no plans to stop the program, “It’s kind of near and dear to our hearts,” said Helland, who along with being the cheer coach is also the librarian at the high school. She said the survey — which they run before and after the campaign — shows they are making a difference. “As long as you save one life, it’s all worth it.”
Ideally, Helland does hope to eradicate texting and driving. “I know myself, I don’t pick up my phone in the car. Before, I did.” She said if she hears it buzzing, she waits until she stops her car. She wants to educate the kids to “know nothing is so important that you can’t wait until you stop your car.”
No comments:
Post a Comment