Don’t Text and Drive, Bordentown Wants You Alive: Heads Up, Phones Down and Just Drive
How many students heard the message of your project?
750
Estimated percentage of your student body?
91-100%
Who has your project aimed to reach?
Freshman class, Sophomore class, Junior class, Senior class, School professionals, Parents, Community at large, Other (Local Businesses in Bordentown)
Objective:
Our project’s objective is to educate individuals of all ages on the dangers of texting while driving through our public service announcement and school projects.
Target Audience:
Our target audience is our entire school body, teachers, administrators, staff, parents/guardians and the local community. However, we feel that our PSA impacts individuals of all ages beyond our school and local community.
Execution:
Our Don’t Text and Drive, Bordentown Wants You Alive Club completed five projects for the 2022-2023 school year. The projects are: Awareness Bracelets, Lifesaver Keychain Distribution, our Just Drive PSA, Pledge Day (In-Person and Online Pledges) and the Safe Driver of the Month parking spot.
Project #1-Awareness bracelets state: XtheTXt. We began the distribution of bracelets in October. By the end of February, all BRHS students received an Awareness bracelet. Bracelets were distributed by our club members.
Project #2-In December we teamed up with the Bordentown Police Department to create key chains and posters. We created Heads Up, Phone Down posters for our schools’ hallways. Posters can be found in our high school and middle school hallways. In addition to the posters, all students received a Lifesaver keychain during the month of December. After the posters and key chains were complete we started to collect data from our BRHS students about their knowledge of texting while driving through pre and post surveys.
Project #3-In February, our club members created a 30 second Public Service Announcement. Our theme is Heads Up, Phones Down and Just Drive. It was entered into the NJM PSA contest and the video was posted to youtube.com
Project #4-In April, we hosted our Pledge Day. During all lunches, students are able to take the pledge that they will not take part in distracted driving. Pledges were signed in person and online using the QR code that was posted on each lunch table. We had 700 pledges turned in by students, teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators.
Project #5-At the end of April, we announced our Safe Driver of the Month parking spot. BRHS drivers were very excited to support this initiative and our club received many applicants. The parking spot was placed in the front of the school, nearest the main entrance.
Teamwork:
Teamwork plays an integral role in our club. Without teamwork we would not be able to spread the word about the dangers of distracted driving or complete our yearly goals. Teamwork is featured in all of the pictures throughout our google slideshow. Please take a minute to view our google slide show and our PSA for this question.
Use of resources:
The Bordentown Police Department, Rita’s Water Ice of Bordentown and New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company were three major resources that supported our projects. The Bordentown Police Department sent at least one officer to be present during our bracelet distribution, keychain distribution, recording of our public service announcement and our pledge day. If you check out Bordentown Police Department’s Instagram account (@bordentown_township_police) they highlighted our school projects throughout the year.
Rita’s Water Ice of Bordentown proudly displayed our posters in their shop. In addition to displaying our posters, the owner of the shop gave our Don’t Text and Drive members coupons to distribute around the community. If a club member spotted someone walking around town with their “heads up, phones down” they received a coupon for a free water ice.
New Jersey Manufacturer’s Insurance representatives came to Bordentown Regional High School to give an assembly on Safe Driving called Just Drive. This assembly reached 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders during their PE class.
Use of media:
Immediately our students wanted to spread the word about the dangers of texting while driving not only within the Bordentown Community but to the entire driving population. Our students immediately created a personalized Instagram Account: @xthetextbrhs. Through this platform we were able to spread the word on our five projects to our students, teachers and community members. From our personal Instagram posts, our campaign grew in popularity. Our PSA was posted on youtube.com. After it was shared on youtube.com our administrators were excited to share it on Bordentown Regional High School’s Facebook page, Twitter Account and Instagram page. The New Jersey Education Association completed an article about our club in March which will be published in their magazine at the end of the school year. This article will reach all teachers and schools in the state of NJ.
Thoroughness:
Each of our five projects demonstrates and encourages the importance of teens driving safely. However, we feel that our Public Service Announcement is most impactful with one question for our viewers. It asks our audience: Who do you “Just Drive” for? We hope this question resonates in a driver’s mind before they start their vehicle. We hope that our viewers understand the importance of driving free of distractions. No text or distraction is worth the risk of losing everything or losing someone you love or care about.
Impact:
In 2012 we began our Don’t Text and Drive, Bordentown Wants You Alive club. As a club, we decided that keeping track of the number of pledges signed each year will be the chosen method of tracking our club’s impact on our school’s community. In 2012, we had five hundred students sign our Don’t Text and Drive pledge. Five-hundred signatures (pledges) became our baseline for research. Each year we hope to collect more signatures than the year before. This year we collected about 700 pledges. 92% of our students have signed our pledge. Since 2012, we have collected over 3,000 pledges.
Sustainability:
We are proud to say that our Don’t Text and Drive, Bordentown Wants You Alive club is one of the most popular clubs to join at BRHS. Our club is open to everyone! We have over 50 members that range in grades from ninth to twelfth grade. These students want to make a difference and put a stop to distracted driving. Their creativity, talent and intelligence is palpable in all five projects. Our students are already discussing projects for next year. Their excitement and ideas will be around for many years at Bordentown Regional High School.
Unexpected Lessons Learned:
In addition to our five major projects, a bunch of smaller impactful projects were completed. These smaller projects were a surprise! As mentioned before, our club collected kid friendly food items for our Thanksgiving Food Baskets for the Bordentown Community. On November 9th we hosted a NJM: Just Drive Presentation. Our club members participated in our school wide Lip Dub, where we spread awareness about the dangers of texting while driving. Also the support from Rita’s Water Ice through their coupons and the support from the Bordentown Township Police Department was nothing short of incredible. It is pretty amazing to see how local businesses want to help our students with their campaign. We are grateful.
Stipend Reporting:
Your school received a stipend to support your Champion School Teen Driving Safety Project. Additionally, any funds that you raised as a result of your project must be reinvested into transportation safety. The purpose of this report is to itemize expenditures for your project that were paid from the stipend
Pledge Supplies – $100.00
Videographer – $200.00
Trip to Great Adventure – $700.00
Total – $1,000.00
PROJECT MEDIA
