Project CARSCould You Live Without Me?

Quincy Senior High School

Community Outreach

Basketball Games• Attended two boys basketball

games• Created displays with information,

that were available before the game

• Announcements made before each activity using information from Allstate’s Keep the Drive and Ford’s Driving Skills for Life websites

• Created half time presentations regarding

– Drunk driving– Hazardous road conditions

• Approximately 650 adults and 350 students regularly attend the basketball games

Pre-School Goodie Bags• Distributed goodie bags to

preschoolers • Bags contained safe

driving related materials– coloring pages– fun activities– safety belt laws information– “Click It or Ticket” clickers

Facebook• Safe driving messages are

shared– Safe driving reminders– “Facebook only”

competitions

• 218 “friends”

Coloring Contest• Safe-driving related

coloring sheets were sent to local elementary teachers

• Teachers discussed with their students the importance of buckling their seatbelts and not distracting the driver

• Attended the morning assembly at Washington School to celebrate that 70% of their school participated!

• 432 submissions

Poster Contest

• A poster contest was held for students grades 4 through 9.

• Students created posters with a graphic and a creative safe driving message.

• 24 submissions

Junior High Assembly• Information was presented

about the Driving Skills for Life curriculum and The Academy– A drawing was held for

students who completed The Academy and printed their certificates

• Students were presented with a safe driving contract that was created using The Brutal Truth from the Keep the Drive website

Politician Signs• Politician signs were

placed in 50 yards, reminding drivers to buckle up and drive safely

Business Marques

• Local businesses displayed safe driving messages on their marquees.

• Businesses were located along Broadway, Quincy’s busiest street.

Proclamation• Mayor John Spring

awarded us with the Proclamation at the City Council meeting on the Tuesday night of our Safe Driving Week.

• We provided Mayor Spring with a safe driving water bottle and other promotional items from our campaign

• Aired on public television

Driving Simulation• Trooper Mike Kindhart

led a driving simulation for the community.

• Approximately 5,500 people observed the simulation.

• The Home and Living Show was held at the Oakley Lindsey Center.

Drive One 4UR School• CARS members

manned a booth at the Drive One 4UR School event.

• The booth provided information related to safe driving.

School Outreach

Winter Pep Rally• We previewed our CARS campaign

at our winter pep rally.

• We discussed our:

– CARS Facebook group

– CARS Safe Driving Week

– Keep the Drive website

– Driving Skills for Life website

• Reminded everyone “on the road off

the phone” and asked “Could you live

without me?”

Announcements• Announcements are read over the intercom each day; this

year we used this to our advantage reading safe driving tips

from the Ford website, such as:

– “Vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teenagers in America,

claiming more than 7,000 lives each year. In fact, a 16-year-old driver is

10 times more likely to be involved in a crash than an adult. That’s why

every student in our school should watch the Driving Skills for Life

videos, which illustrates driving skills importance for safety. Visit

https://www.drivingskillsforlife.com/index.php for more information.

– On behalf of Project CARS along with our sponsors Ford Driving Skills

For Life, Allstate, Illinois Department of Transportation, and the Ford

Motor Foundation; we would like to remind you this weekend…

BUCKLE UP, EVERY TRIP, EVERY TIME!”

Window Painting & Posters• Students were

greeted Monday with painted windows and safe driving signs that had safe driving mottos.

Safe Driving Ribbons• During Advocacy CARS

members tied ribbons to all the cars in the parking lot and at our Flinn parking lot.

• It was -4° outside while we were tying the ribbons.

Balloon Release• A balloon release was

held after school. • A total of 308 balloons

were released.– This represented our

statistic, found on the Keep the Drive website, that if 11 teenage driving related fatalities per day occurred, in the month of February 308 teens would lose their lives.

Smarties & Dum Dums

• Thursday in the morning members on the CARS committee stood outside at the high school and handed out Smarties to those who wore their seatbelt.

• Those who did not wear their seatbelt were given Dum Dum wrappers.

• It was -6° outside.

Assembly• Three speakers talked about the things

CARS focused on including: texting and driving, drinking and driving and seatbelt usage

• First speaker was Trooper Kindhart– Talked about the foolishness and the dangers of

texting and also drinking and driving

• Second Speaker was George Heroux– Executive Director for Victim Impact Speakers– He shared pictures of families and victims he has

helped and told their stories

• Third Speaker was Denny Pryor– His 18 year old son was a victim of a drunk

driving accident– He shares his family’s story in hope that drunk

driving will eventually never happen– Wants to inspire others to be smart and do that

right thing: Don’t drink and drive

Statistics T-Shirts• 308 QHS students wore t-shirts displaying the campaign

statistic and the logos of Ford Driving Skills for Life, The Allstate Foundation, and The Illinois Department of Transportation Division of Traffic Safety.

Incorporating Driving Skills for Life and

Ford Motor Company

Newsletter• The Tips for Parents from

the Driving Skills for Life website was included in our February/March Newsletter

• The newsletter is sent to 1600 parents and is posted on our website

“The Academy”• Students at Quincy Senior High

School visited the Ford Driving Skills For Life website and took the Learning Quiz .

• The students printed out their certificates after taking the quiz and received various prizes for their participation.

• CARS committee members hosted a “The Academy” workshop to help students navigate the website and register

• 193 student completed The Academy and printed their certificates

Belt It Out• QHS hosted its own version

of Ford’s Belt it Out Contest. Advocacy classes developed safe driving related songs and videos.

• Our contest winners created new lyrics to the song “Build Me Up Butter Cup”

Information Booth• We passed out fliers to

students providing them with Ford MyKey safe driving information, provided by the staff of Gem City Ford.

Incorporating Keep the Drive and Allstate

Newsletter• The Parent-Teen Driving

Contract from the Keep the Drive website was included in our February/March Newsletter

• The newsletter is sent to 1600 parents and is posted on our website

The Brutal Truth• Gives teens facts and

statistics about reckless driving

• Students read and signed their name to make a promise to be a safe driver.

• 827 students returned a signed contract

Information Booth• We passed out

information in the commons, sharing with our fellow classmates some of Allstate’s safe driving information, provided by our local agent, Bob Navolio.

Media Coverage

Quincy Herald Whig• Project CARS was featured

twice in the local newspaper.– On Sunday, December 12, a

preview of our campaign was run. The article outlined the program sponsors and what Operation Teen Safe Driving is all about.

– On Thursday, February 10, featured a photo of a CARS member participating in the balloon release.

• An online version of the December 12 story was placed on their website

WGEM (NBC & Fox affiliates)• February 9th

– 2 ½ minutes• 5:00 p.m. news• 6:00 p.m. news• 10:00 p.m. news

• February 10th

– Morning news• Online version of story

posted to their website• WGEM covers 15 counties in

three of the surrounding States. Potential total population reached: 275,753

KHQA (CBS & ABC affiliates)• February 11th

– 5:00 p.m. news– 6:00 p.m. news– 10:00 p.m. news

• February 16th – 6:00 p.m. news– 10:00 p.m. news

• Online version of story posted to website

• KHQA covers 15 counties in three of the surrounding states. Potential total population reached: 275,753

News/Talk Live 105• December 14th

– The segments lasted 4 minutes and 37 seconds

– Interview with CARS chairperson, Sinead Brink

– Previewed CARS campaign

– Spoke about OTSD program and sponsors

Public Service Announcement• A PSA was recorded and has

been playing 6 times a day on our local station since January 28th

• The PSA was sent to 16 stations throughout the area, and as far away as Louisiana, Missouri

• Estimated listenership for the PSA is 275,753

Results

Imagine…• If the 308 students who wore

our statistic shirt, told 10 people about what it takes to be a safe driver, then 2,772 more people would hear our message.

• If those 2,772 people told 10 more people about our safe driving message, we would

impact 27,720 people!

Student/Teacher Reactions• “The assembly was very thought provoking and I will definitely

think twice before picking up my phone any time while driving.”

-Marissa Blakey, senior• “The assembly was awesome. The students were amazing

and sat spell bound.”

-Heike Bruner, teacher• “The messages on the window were great. My favorite was

don’t drive intexticated.”

-Connie Bakker, teacher

Seatbelt Surveys• Driver seatbelt usage

increased 4.8%• Total seatbelt usage

increased 2.4%