Leaders of the Anoka High School chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) say their $2,000 second prize in a U.S. Transportation Department contest will help them reach the whole state with a message of teen safety, behind the wheel and in the passenger seat.
PRESENTATION SHOWN LIVE: Co-presidents Natalie Hayford and Ashley Curley are coming home today after three days in Washington, D.C., for the U. S. Department of Transportation Rural Youth Traffic Safety Message Competition. Their stay included a presentation for transportation officials (live-streamed at Anoka High School), an awards ceremony, a behind-the-scenes tour of the U.S. Capitol and more.
The girls, their adviser, Patricia Halsey, and classmates used $500 of DOT seed money to create and post three public service announcements on Minnesota's new teen driving laws enacted last summer.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters lauded the group for their creativity and for deputizing teens to carry the message of safety.
"The hardest thing as a parent is give up the car keys on that first night they go out by themselves, because at the end of the day they're out there by themselves," Peters said Tuesday, recalling her own experience. "We know that young people are much more apt to listen to each other than they are to listen to us."
PLANS FOR THE PRIZE: The students will use the prize to update their website so they can easily share materials with other Minnesota schools.
OTHER WINNERS: The $5,000 first-place prize went to students from Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School in Gibson City, Ill., who worked with media and local officials to draw attention to bicycle and railroad safety and dangerous intersections. The $1,000 third-place prize went to Clifton Central High School, in Clifton, Ill. Winners were culled from a field of 34 schools.
MARIA ELENA BACA
