Ravens Striving for Safe Driving
How many students heard the message of your project?
1088
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
Objective:
The objective our project was to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving.
Target Audience:
Our target audience was our entire school, including students, staff, and parents. Other non-parent residents, as well as visitors to our town or those passing through, were also reached by seeing the lawn signs in their neighborhoods.
Execution:
This year we created a campaign called “Ravens Striving for Safe Driving” since our school mascot is the raven. We made and sold t-shirts with a student-created logo and image. The shirt recipients were put into a drawing for Wawa gift cards. With the shirt money we ordered lawn signs and tote bags. The lawn signs were given away to parents at a sold-out school event. Other signs were given to local and big-name stores/venues and were visible to the entire town population of 15,476 (as of 2020). The tote bags will be given to parents picking up their students at all three district schools during the month of May. There are 3,181 students in our district.
During the month of April, which is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, our members created videos with statistics on distracted driving for every day of our school announcements and reached the entire RHS population of 1,084 students, plus staff. In addition, we hosted a Safe Driving Spirit Week in April. During this week students participated by dressing up in related themes, played trivia games about distracted driving, and shared our posts on social media.
In two weeks, during our Senior Safety and Awareness event for the graduating class, a trauma nurse will present the tragedy of motor vehicle accidents, often caused by distracted driving. All 321 seniors and their staff group chaperones will view the presentation.
We created social media pages to promote all of our activities, as well as signing the pledge to not drive distracted.
As the advisors, we were interviewed for the high school e-paper to promote the U Got Brains mission and member group. It will be published later in the week. All students, parents, and staff receive access to this media.
Teamwork:
We discussed our campaign at our weekly meetings, which were held each Thursday from 2:05-2:35 p. m. Attendance was taken. T-shirt designs and logistics for selling them during lunches were discussed here. They also created their daily videos here or at home for the daily announcements. Group members spent three weeks together at all three daily lunch periods to promote and sell the shirts. They worked together to distribute lawn signs to their family, friends, and businesses around town.
Use of resources:
When putting our lawn signs around town we asked local businesses to display a sign on their property. Capital Health Trauma Unit is presenting material to our seniors.
Use of media:
We used our social media page to promote our safe driving spirit week. Throughout the week we posted the daily theme, how students could participate that day, and statistics about driving. Our trauma nurse presentation will also use video and images of distracted driving effects. An article was also written about our participation in the campaign in our school newspaper.
Thoroughness:
There are three types of distracted driving: visual, manual, and cognitive. As a result, we wanted our project to include a visual component, a manual component, and a cognitive component. For the visual component we created videos for our morning announcements, hung flyers around school, posted on social media, and put up lawn signs around our town. For the manual component we are going to be distributing tote bags with our logo/slogan on them and information about safe driving to parents later this month. For the cognitive component we had students think about the dangers of distracted driving to participate in trivia during our spirit week. We also will be asking the seniors to reflect on how listening to the trauma nurse has impacted their view on driving distracted.
Impact:
Each day during spirit week we asked teachers to report the number of students participating in their 2nd block class. There is a survey that our seniors will complete after their event on safety and awareness. They will have the opportunity to rate and discuss the trauma unit presentation.
Sustainability:
The lawn signs will remain around town indefinitely as a reminder to drive safely. The students will wear their shirts and additional students will purchase them next year when we run our next spirit week. Our seniors will have lasting memories from their trauma presentation, with vivid images of injuries caused by distracted driving.
Unexpected Lessons Learned:
We learned that our teachers are very eager to help with our campaign and support us. We hope to leverage their willingness to help next year!
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
Lawn signs – $230.40
T-shirts – $674.00
Bus to Showcase – $205.15
Total $1,109.55
Did your school project raise any funds as a result of the stipend received? For example, did your school utilize the stipend to purchase t-shirts for a fundraiser?
YES
As the U Got Brains Champion Schools Program is funded through the Division of highway Traffic Safety, funds raised as a result of the stipend received must be reinvested into transportation safety. If yes, please briefly report the total amount and how this money will be reinvested into transportation safety for your school/community?
The money we raised for the t-shirt sales will be used to purchase the reusable tote bags that will be distributed later in May.
PROJECT MEDIA
