In recent years, RBHS has made a point to give back to the community during homecoming week. Starting today the school will participate in Celebrate My Drive, a national campaign to promote safe driving.
“This year [Student Council] wanted to add another component to homecoming, like a service project,” junior Student Council representative Betsy Poehlman said.
Unsafe driving is a serious problem, as car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death of teen drivers, according to the CDCs. Additionally, seven teens between the ages of 16 to 19 died each day in wrecks during 2010. In a coincidence, National Teen Driver Safety Week fell on the same day as homecoming week.
Celebrate My Drive, sponsored by State Farm Insurance, is a week-long program with a goal of encouraging students to make smarter decisions behind the wheel.
“Our Partner in Education is State Farm Insurance Companies,” RBHS activities director David Bones said. “We’ve been partners with them for over 25 years, so we have regular meetings as a part of that partnership. In one of those meetings [Celebrate My Drive] was mentioned and we thought it would be a cool thing to do.”
The program, which is in its second year, runs for a week, from today through next Friday, Oct. 26. Bones said students can ‘commit’ to drive safely once each day on the Celebrate My Drive website. However, it’s not limited to the student body. Faculty, staff, family members and anyone else who wants can help.
“The more votes we have, the better chance we have to earn $100,000 for our school,” Poehlman said. “Since we are competing against 4,000 schools, some of them could be bigger. Every vote counts.”
There are three levels of prizes for each school size, large and small, with RBHS being in the larger category. The top vote-getting school in each category will receive the grand prize: both a $100,000 grant and a Kelly Clarkson concert for all students. The next four schools will win ‘just’ the $100,000, and 45 will win $25,000.
Should RBHS win, there is only one requirement for the spending of the money. Ten percent, $10,000, would be set aside for a safe driving program at school.
“Part of that stipulation is that ten percent of that $100,000 goes toward a school-based effort to support student driving safety,” Bones said, “and the rest I would assume would be up to the students, faculty and staff saying, ‘Hey, this is awesome! What are we gonna do now?’”
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By Brett Stover
Additional reporting by George Sarafianos
People can start voting today, runs through the weekend, and ends on Oct. 26. Do you plan to vote daily? Sound off in the comments.
