Put it on. Put it away. Just slow down. Say no way.
October 31 update
CO$T had a great time and was privileged to be a part of the NOYS Rural Youth Traffic Safety Campaign. We accomplished a lot and are hopeful that all of our projects will make a difference in our community.
CO$T purchased speed limit signs for both entrances to our school high school and middle school complex. Since we were purchasing the speed limit signs we thought it was appropriate to put up our CO$T logo as well. Students and community will see our message every time they come to our school for an activity.
 
CO$T conducted a number of seat belt surveys. On this day we not only checked for seatbelts but we passed out Lifesavers candies with a sticker attached that said “Seatbelts Save Lives”. One of our football players can’t wait to dig in to his candy. More than 95% of our students were observed wearing their seatbelt. We can’t brag about such a high percentage for our community members however so we know where more of our education needs to be directed – to the older generations.
A couple of Comet fans show off their CO$T popcorn bag from the concession stand. CO$T purchased popcorn bags that not only have our logo on them but also our Priceless paragraph. The Priceless paragraph states “I am priceless. I can never be replaced. The cost for me to put on my seatbelt, drive without distractions, drive at the speed limit, and drive sober can never be figured. I am a safe driver because I AM PRICELE$$.” This same paragraph is found on the back of our t-shirts.
Also at the football game, CO$T hung banners at every entrance so Comet fans would see our message when they enter and when they leave the game. These banners will be moved inside after football season and hung in gymnasium for the basketball season.
  – Some of our Art Club students help CO$T get the message out. The Art Club had a design contest and then painted the winners artwork on a 4’ x 8’ sheet of plywood. The mural will be hung outside the gymnasium entrance where it will be easily viewed by every student and community member that goes through our school.
The finished mural. Central High School has some great artists in residence and CO$T was very proud to have them put a new image to our message.
The winner of our CO$T Door Decorating Contest. Ms. Dornan’s homeroom made quite a graphic display but the judges felt it would really grab the student body’s attention. Her homeroom students won a Dairy Queen ice cream cake to share. We even put our CO$T logo on the top of the cake!
Mrs. William’s Creative Writing class earned second place in the contest. They obviously had some artistic students as they drew all the cartoons on their door.
 
Third place was a tie between the library homeroom and Mrs. McGill’s. Second and third place students won a Dairy Queen dilly bar, a sweet treat for spreading a safe driving message.
Mrs. McGill speaks to a group of concerned parents that showed up for our Alive at 25 Parent Program. The National Safety Council created this program for parents and in three hours parents learn about the risks of teen driving, what they can do as partners in the learning to drive experience, and what the GDL laws are in Illinois. Sergeant Angie Kinstner was on hand to answer questions and she also brought quite a bit of literature for the parents to take home from the Illinois State Police.
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CO$T Junior was excused for half a class day to go to Chebanse Elementary School to present to more than 300 kindergartners through second graders about the importance of seatbelts and booster seats. We talked about why it is so important to wear their seatbelt every time they are in a car. CO$T Junior then demonstrated with the egg crash car so the students had a visual of the egg being ejected and smashing on the ground. The next demonstration included the seatbelt desks and we had a seatbelt race. The race was proof that it doesn’t take very long to put on your seatbelt so they should buckle up every time. CO$T Junior then discussed the importance of tightening the seatbelt and sitting in a booster seat so the seatbelt fits correctly. We concluded the presentation by talking about how important and priceless every person is and how important it is for them to be safe passengers and to help their parents be safe drivers. Before they left, we gave each student a CO$T bag with Lifesavers, brochure on booster seats, and a pencil or ruler with the Click It or Ticket logo. We received rave reviews for our presentation and have been invited back for next year!
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CO$T, in conjunction with Ashkum Early Literacy Center and the Illinois State Police, sponsored a Child Safety Seat check. We advertised the event in our local newspapers, on our school website, and by sending flyers home with students. CO$T members were present to help the Troopers with paperwork and in amusing the kids while their seats were checked. Through the course of the evening, 19 seats were checked and 11 of those checked came installed incorrectly. The State Police not only corrected the seats but also gave out three brand new seats to families that needed new ones. The event was a great success and all families left with safer kids in safer seats.
Other projects not pictured –
Our Crash Map is still in the works. We collected crash data from a number of our students but ran into difficulty with locating a map suited to our needs and didn’t get this project completed. CO$T plans to continue this project and have it completed by spring.
The Memorial Video is also still in the works. CO$T has contacted 20 families that lost a CHS student to a motor-vehicle crash. Some of those parents are not interested in participating and others needed more time to collect and send the pictures and other information we were asking for. We have currently received information from 7 families and expect more to respond. Due to time constrictions this is another project that we hope to have completed in the spring.
Our video/public service announcement is complete! Please check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5x66j12xk CO$T has contacted Channel One news about airing our PSA and they are interested! CO$T is going to send the video off to New York City and we will hopefully see it aired nationwide in the next few months. Thanks go out to Isaac (our student director) and Zach (actor extraordinaire) for making such a catchy video!
Well that’s it! Our NOYS deadlines are in and our Rural Youth Safe Driving Campaign is complete but CO$T is done educating. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and we are always coming up with new projects. The winter season is right around the corner and we discovered from our Crash Map surveys that a number of our students have had difficulties with winter driving in the past. This is one topic we plan to discuss and educate our students and community about. The goal of making safe drivers never ends especially with 100 new student drivers hitting the classroom and roads starting in January! Please remember to always “Put it on. Put it away. Just slow down. Say no way.”
October 15 Update:
 
CO$T sponsored a seatbelt race for our Homecoming pep assembly. Mr. Adams 8th hour class helped us attach seatbelts to desks and we put four students from each class as competing groups. The message? It doesn’t take long to buckle your seatbelt so “Put It On” every time you’re in a car.
 
A couple of Central Comets show off their CO$T hand stamp. The stamps are currently being used at every football and volleyball admission gate. In the future, they will be used at other events. Every time a fan (or rival) looks at their hand they will be reminded of our message.
The Comets football team shows their support. Every Friday, the football guys stand on the corner “by the rock” and encourage students and parents to honk as they go by to show their team spirit and support. CO$T added a sign to encourage those drivers to also be safe and our football guys help show it off.
Sam smiles pretty while putting a CO$T Fast Facts flyer on a windshield. CO$T put a flyer on every windshield (over 400 of them) at the Homecoming football game. The flyer contained statistics, a comic strip, and other facts about the importance of safe driving. We hope everyone had a fun Homecoming and made it home safely.
 
Isaac directs part one of our current video. He is our director and editor and has the task of making this video no more than 30 seconds in length so it can be shown on Channel One this fall. Channel One is affiliated with NBC news and was interested in our video from last year but it was too long to fit in the time slot. This year we are going to be aired on a national news broadcast.
Isaac Gray, Officer Brandon Legan, and Zach Webber smile for the camera after the final taping for the evening. Check back later for our 2008 video!
 
CO$T has been featured in our local newspaper twice in the last two weeks. We are trying to get out information on our upcoming Alive at 25 Parent Program and also our memorial video that we have in the works.
 
The first edition of the 2008-2009 Potty Press has hit the stalls! This edition covered various statistics about distracted driving. It’s nice to have something to read while taking care of business!
Isn’t that a good looking billboard? The CO$T billboard is located on a two-lane rural road in our area. It’s our logo with a twist and we hope all the drivers will take notice and follow the signs.
The eggs are ready to sacrifice their lives for the education of the young!
 
Meredith is at the ready for the egg “driver” as Drew sets the egg car down the ramp. CO$T presented for Horizons Mentoring mentors and mentees from Nash Middle School on Wednesday, October 15 about the importance of wearing their seatbelt at all times. The egg car demonstrated that with a seatbelt on the egg lived through the crash with no injuries or minor ones at most. When we put the egg in a crash without the seatbelt however there were very different results. Instead of a healthy egg we had a cracked and leaking egg. The message? We don’t want you to be the cracked and leaking “egg” on the road after a crash. Always buckle up!
CO$T challenged the mentees (5th -8th graders) to a seatbelt race. Students had to buckle up, then rotate clockwise and buckle up again, and continue until they were back to their original seats and we timed them. The verdict? It took less than 60 seconds to buckle up in four seats. It only takes a few seconds to buckle up – there are no good excuses not to.
 
Horizons Mentoring program, CO$T members, and Sergeant Kinstner smile for the camera. CO$T passed out keytags with our logo on it and encouraged each of them to give it to someone they care about that they want to remind to be a safe driver. We also gave them a coupon for area McDonald’s that is also a pledge card to always buckle up and to encourage others to buckle up. If they do this at least seven times, McDonald’s will give them a special prize.
Our sponsor, Mrs. McGill, recently attended the Illinois High School & College Driver Education workshop for the driver education teachers in our region. Mrs. McGill took a copy of our video from last year to give to all the driver education teachers in our region to use in their classrooms. While she was there, she gave a copy to a representative from the Secretary of State’s office so our video can be hand delivered to Jesse White the Illinois Secretary of State. Who knows maybe our video will be in the Illinois DMV’s!
CO$T (Clifton Central Comets Operation Safer Teens) is dedicated to helping our students and community members gain and apply knowledge to be safer drivers and passengers. Our priceless campaign focuses on the main risk factors for not only teen drivers but for all drivers. Our slogan is “Put it on. Put it away. Just slow down. Say no way.” We want all drivers and passengers to put on their seatbelts, put away distractions (including cell phones), go the speed limit, and say no to drugs and alcohol. If everyone followed these four rules, our roads would be much safer places.
We have a number of activities planned to help educate our students and community. Some of our activities will be focused on current drivers (young and old) while some of our activities will be focused on new soon-to-be drivers and yet others will have parents in mind. We also have a number of ideas of how to get our logo and message out to as many people as possible. We will use all of our resources including local businesses, school ball games, parent nights, the school day, and the Illinois State Police. Our goal is to have a full house on graduation day. For the past number of years we have had an empty seat at graduation dedicated to a classmate lost to a motor vehicle crash. We don’t want to go to any more hospital rooms, visitations, or funerals and we do not want any more empty seats. The CO$T of life is PRICELE$$!
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September 30 Update:
Guest Speaker - CHS was so fortunate to have Sarah Panzau speak to us and give our school year a great start. Sarah was a teen with a successful volleyball career but made an almost fatal mistake to drink and drive. Her message is to value your body, your life, and don’t take for granted anything that you have. Her message made a powerful impact because of her sincerity, sense of humor, and obvious self-confidence. Trooper Angie Kinstner from the Illinois State Police made the arrangements for Sarah to come to our school and introduced her. |
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A Kid to Know - WCIA Channel 3 news selected one of our very own, Natasha Weisenbeck, as a “Kid to Know”. Natasha was selected because of her tremendous involvement with CO$T as well as other groups at CHS. The interview went well and had the double bonus of getting the CO$T message out to the viewing audience. |
Natasha Weisenbeck during her interview with WCIA Channel 3 news.
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Natasha and the cameraman/interviewer after the interview
Projects in the works….
Crash Map -- We are currently gathering data from students to make a map of crashes our students have been in. CO$T is asking drivers to give details of the crash including where it happened, who was involved, injuries and/or damages, and what happened. This information will be put on a map of our area so we can see where crashes are happening. The plan is to use the map as a visual of how many crashes are happening in our area and as a place to start for future projects.
Memorial video – How much is one life worth? We believe every life is priceless and can never be replaced. We also believe that each life lost (especially a young life) impacts the entire school and community for lifetimes. To illustrate this belief, CO$T is collecting pictures and information from area families that have lost a loved one during the school years. The pictures and information will then be put to music and made into a memorial video to respectfully acknowledge the lives that Central High School has lost. This video will be posted when it is completed.
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Signs, signs, everywhere signs –
1. CO$T has rented a billboard on a high traffic two-lane highway in our school district. The billboard will be up for the month of October.
2. CO$T is purchasing speed limit signs and logo signs for the driveways and roadway around our school. The school handbook limits drivers to 10 mph but the speed limit is not posted. CO$T is going to correct this lack of communication!
3. Every Friday, during the football season, our football players stand on the corner and encourage school spirit and encourage drivers to honk as they go by. CO$T has made signs to put up on the corner so we can encourage drivers to put on their seatbelts, put away distractions, and drive the speed limit. Real Comets are safe drivers!
4. The CO$T logo will be spotted on the hands of every Comet fan because we bought stamps for the game admission gates with our logo.
5. The CO$T logo and message will also be in the hands of Comet fans because we purchased popcorn bags for the concessions. Hopefully as they sit and munch, they will also digest our message!
Flyers –
1. What is there to do in a restroom besides the obvious? Read the Potty Press of course! CO$T publishes editions of the Potty Press throughout the year with statistics, cartoons, safety check information, and other safe driving news and posts it on the stall doors. The Potty Press has been well received in the past so it is making a return with new information.
2. Face the Facts is a new component of the Potty Press. The guest speaker we had at the beginning of the year struck a chord when she said about crashes “It’s not the statistics that you’ll remember, it’s the faces.” We agree and so Face the Facts was born. In Face the Facts we will print a student’s picture along with information about a crash he/she was in and what they learned. We are asking our students to take an honest approach to the real “why” of the crash and what they would do differently if they could.
3. CO$T is planning to put flyers similar to the Potty Press on the windshields of the cars at this week’s Homecoming game and other events. The message will be to encourage every driver to drive safely on his/her way home and to avoid potentially dangerous decisions.
4. Two of our local businesses, Dairy Queen and Papa’s Pizza, have agreed to pass out flyers to their customers with the order. Fast Facts are just that. Each Fast Fact has a statistic on it relating to our theme and because these are “to go” orders they will read the Fast Fact while they are in the car!
Alive at 25 Parent Program – The National Safety Council has created a program called Alive at 25 because 16-25 year olds are the population most at risk of motor-vehicle crashes
and fatalities. CO$T purchased the leader manual and workbook for participants and have invited all CHS parents to attend this 3-hour course on teen safe driving. Our Alive at 25 Parent Program will take place on Sunday, October 26. Parents have the opportunity to learn about the Illinois GDL laws, what makes teens at-risk drivers, and what they can do to help their teen be alive at 25.
School Involvement –
1. CO$T sponsored a seatbelt race for the annual pep assembly and class competition during Homecoming week. The message is it doesn’t take long to buckle up so put it on every time you’re in a car!
2. All homerooms at CHS will take part in a door decorating contest for Red Ribbon Week. The guidelines instruct the homerooms to decorate their door using one or more of the CO$T themes. The doors will then be judged and winners will receive a sweet treat.
3. CO$T now has its’ very own section of the school website. We plan to post pictures and upcoming activities. Check us out at: www.cusd4.org/vnews/display.v/ART/48da5d403bf1d
4. In March, CO$T will host a Safety Day. At Safety Day, all CHS students will go through four activities, each dealing with one of our themes. Activities will include guest speakers and activities such as the rollover simulator, seatbelt convincer, and sobriety field test by the Illinois State Police as well as a presentation by our local hospital emergency department and a distracted driving activity by Allstate Insurance. Last but not least, students will hear from a parent that has lost a son/daughter to a motor-vehicle crash to pass on the message that every life is priceless and that each life touches many others.
5. CO$T has gone cross-curricular! The Art Club is creating a mural for our building using the CO$T theme and logo. This way everyone who comes to the building for activities will see our safe driving message. Also the Mechanics class has helped us out with attaching seatbelts to desks for the seatbelt race and are making the ramp for a CO$T, Jr activity.
Community Involvement -
1. CO$T has developed a subgroup that we call CO$T, Jr. CO$T, Jr will go to our local elementary school and talk to the kindergartners through second grade students about the importance of wearing a seatbelt, sitting in a booster seat until age 8, and being a safe passenger. Our message is “safe kids grow up to be safe drivers”. CO$T, Jr will also give a similar presentation at the mentoring program in our middle school to the 5th -8th grade students.
2. CO$T, in conjunction with SADD, will sponsor movie nights at the high school. Movie nights are a safe event for students and their families and are a “wise high”. The movie will
have a safety or smart decision theme and will debut at the end of October for Red Ribbon Week.
3. Statistics are always important so CO$T will conduct a number of seatbelt checks, speed checks, and cell phone checks on our school and community. Some checks will be anonymous and others will give drivers a treat with our message on it thanking them for being a safe driver. |
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