Minnesota Ag Connection - Teen's Poignant Message Wins Safe Rides-Save Lives Contest

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Teen's Poignant Message Wins Safe Rides-Save Lives Contest
Minnesota Ag Connection - 02/14/2017

The Litchfield (Minn.) High School Chapter of FCCLA won a $3,500 prize for its school by placing first in the Safe Rides-Save Lives PSA Contest, a national competition developed by the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and sponsored by The National Road Safety Foundation.

The contest empowers youth by having them create public service announcement messages that will have an impact on teen roadway safety, particularly as it relates to the number of passengers in a vehicle. With traffic crashes as the leading cause of death for young people in the United States, FCCLA and The National Road Safety Foundation agree about the importance of youth leaders reaching out to their peers and their communities to address this safety concern.

The winning PSA by the Litchfield High School FCCLA chapter opens with a teen writing an apology to her parents. We hear her explaining how they always warned her about distracted driving, but how she never thought she would be the distraction. She says she and her friends thought it would make sense to carpool, but there were more passengers than seat belts, and the noise and laughter caused the driver to be distracted. As she apologizes for causing her parents pain, we see teens leaving memorial notes on the girl's locker in school.

"We are thrilled to have partnered with The National Road Safety Foundation in offering this contest to our teen members. There are many misconceptions teens have as to the seriousness of limiting the number of passengers in a vehicle and these influential years are an ideal time to establish traffic safety habits to last a lifetime," said Sandy Spavone, executive director of FCCLA.

"This PSA sends an impactful message to their peers to practice safe driving habits, including limiting passengers in their vehicle," said Michelle Anderson of The National Road Safety Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes safe driving behavior. "Statistics show that the risk of a crash increases for teens with each additional passenger in the car, and this PSA helps drive that important message home."

The winning PSA was selected from a pool of 56 applicants from around the nation. In addition to a cash prize of $3,500, the winners will have their PSA featured at the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in Nashville this July, where more than 8,000 youth and adults will be in attendance.

FCCLA is a dynamic and effective national student organization that helps young men and women become leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through Family and Consumer Sciences education. FCCLA has more than 160,000 members and more than 5,400 chapters from 48 state associations, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

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