State News!!!

We are EXTREMELY happy to announce that we've made the state newspaper, The News Journal. We are featured in our very own article. It explains what we've been doing and how we've been promoting our campaign. It also gives a the Act Out Loud website to let people know when and where they can vote (for us, that is).
To see the article, go to : http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009905070320

Safe Driving 101

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKDDPZPmEWE
The Soaring Eagles Public Service Announcement encompasses the focus of our project. We hope you hear our message that no matter who you are, unsafe driving is not acceptable, So put away your cell phones, buckle up your seat belts, keep your eyes on the road and JST DRV!

Promoting Safe Driving

At lunches last week, we worked with the Wellness Center in promoting safe driving for prom. Nationwide Insurance sent goodies for us to hand out to people who signed a promise card that said they would drive safe after prom and not drink and drive. We handed out frisbees that had Delaware's slogan, "Click it or Ticket." We also handed out keychains and pens. We had drunk goggles and had lines on the floor for people to see what it would feel like to be drunk either during the day or at night. We are happy that everyone was safe after prom.

May is Safe Driving Month

Last week, the all of us were invited to the Kent County Levy Court meeting, where, because of our project, the commission members named the month of May National Youth Traffic Safety Month for Safe Teen Driving in Kent County. We accepted the Resolution. It was an exciting experience to accept Kent County's new Resolution #2999. We would like to give a big thanks to the Levy Court President, Brooks Banta, for making this happen.

Prom!

Last night was Smyrna High School's prom. We hope everyone had fun and drove safely. Prom night is the night most teens get into accidents. Our school greeted students at the doors with breathalyzers so as to make certain that no one was coming into prom under the influence and no one would be leaving prom under the influence. Thanks for being safe everyone!

Spring Break!

For Smyrna High, this week is Spring Break. It's a time when the weather is nice and everyone has somewhere to go...which means more people out on the roads. We urge everyone to be safe and follow the rules of the road.
Also, look out for our upcoming commercial. It will air in school during announcements. We'll also try to post it to the blog.

Be safe and have fun!

I Love Smyrna School District Day

Every year Smyrna School District hosts a day full of activities, fun...and free stuff... in honor of our school district. Community and school organizations gather at Smyrna High School to present information about themselves to all the stop by, sometimes giving away some freebies as well. Other schools within the district present student artwork. The performing arts programs in all the schools have a small performance in the auditorium. Even small school clubs put themselves on display. For any newcomer, it the perfect place to get a little taste of Smyrna!
Among the contests, activities, and projects, we also decided to set up an area in the school where people could learn about the Soaring Eagles and pledge to "Drive to Save Lives!." We set up a table with a poster which included many interesting driving tips and facts. We also made pins to hand out with our candy. They are ribbons that look like the Act Out Loud driving ribbon. We also made pledge cards for people to sign. People could sign a pledge card, pledging to be a safe driver and then sign our giant poster, which has been hung in school.
Because we wanted to spice things up a little, we also marked a line on the floor with tape and asked people to wear the drunk goggles. they had to try to walk the line without straying away from it. The goggles made people see what it feel like to be drunk.
Overall, it was a pretty succesful day!

More Publicity!

We just found out that we are going to be featured in University of Delaware's Safety Extensions that is published quarterly online. It is an online newsletter. It will provide information about what we've been doing and what we are aiming to do with our campaign. The newsletter also features many other safety tips. to see the website, visit www.rec.udel.edu and click on Safety, then click on Safety Extension newsletter. We will also be featured in Smyrna School District's Quarterly Messenger. It is sent out to all the homes in the district. It will also explain to people what we've been doing recently.

Inattentive Driving Survey

Last week we wanted to do something where students in school could get involved in our Distracted Driving Week! We decided to hold a school-wide survey during all lunches that asked questions about certain distractions student may have while driving. The Questions were:
1. Have you ever used your cell phone for texting while driving?

2. Do you talk on the phone while driving?

3. How many people do you usually have in the car with you?

4. Have you ever played with electronic devices while driving?

5. Have you ever had a "close call" or an accident because of these behaviors?

After tallying up all the answers, these are the results:
59% of the students said they have texted while driving.
45% of the students said they have talked on the phone while driving.
43% of the students said they normally have 1-2 people in the car with them.
47% said they normally have 3-4 people in the car with them.
48% of the students claimed that they have used electronics while driving, but this question could have been misinterprested because some people didn't know this included the radio.
34% of the srudents said they have had a "close call" or an accident due to these distractions.

We want to encourage everyone to participate in our survey, so please feel free to leave comments answering the questions, or go to our facebook page, Smyrna Drives to Save Lives!, to give us your comments and opinions. Thanks everybody!

DUI Newspaper Article

This is our article for the local paper, all about driving under the influence. It's written by our own Emiley Conboy...

Driving Under the Influence

This week the Soaring Eagles are raising awareness about driving under the influence. The statistics surrounding this issue are surprising and everyone should be aware of the dangers.
Every forty minutes a drunk driver kills someone. In 2007, an estimated 12,998 people died in drunk driving related crashes.
Watch the hours that you are on the road as 80% of alcohol related crashes occur between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Nineteen percent of young people killed in car accidents were driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Among the drivers killed fatal crashes, 30% had a BACs of 0.08% or greater.
Driving is not the only risk when talking about driving under the influence. In 2006, 45 children age 14 years and younger who were killed as pedestrians or bicyclists by alcohol-impaired drivers.
It is easy to see that there are too many risks when driving under the influence. It is not worth the risk to your life and the lives of others. Be sure to drive responsibly and keep your eyes open for those who have little regard for human life on the road.

Distracted Driving Newspaper Article

Next week's news article, featured in the Smyrna Sun Times in the SHS Eagle Eye section will be all about distracted driving. This week's article was written by our own Melissa Hubert.

Driving With Distractions
by Melissa Hubert
Eagle Eye Staff

Almost everyone is guilty of the Soaring Eagles' driving topic this week. While driving, there are many things that can take your attention from the road. Studies show that distractions are a factor in a quarter of all crashes, equaling more than 4,300 accidents in a day.

The most common distractions include talking on the phone, texting, eating, playing with the radio, talking with passengers, and lacking sleep. These tasks might not seem dangerous, but one second of inattentiveness can be life threatening.

Cell phone usage is the number one cause of distraction among driver. People using cell phones in their car are four times more likely to get in an accident serious enough to be injured. Distractions due to cell phones delay a person's reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08%, the legal limit.

Many people think that they can solve this problem using hands-free devices with their phones. The truth is that the danger is still there because your full attention isn't focused on the road. Driving while having a phone conversation reduces the amount of brain activity used to keep focused on the road by 37%.

Taking you eyes and mind off the road when you're behind the wheel not only endangers your life, but others' as well. It's much safer and easier to complete tasks by simply waiting until you've arrived at our destination, or pulling over to the side of the road. Being responsible and focused while driving will make you a better driver and possibly save your life!

Going Beyond Local...

We are EXTREMELY happy and we've got good reason to be, too! This week we were featured in the Delaware State News, Dover's newspaper. There was a full article with pictures and everything. The article explained our cause and the activities we plan to do and what we've already done. This is a big step for us because it isn't just local Smyrna anymore. We've gone beyond Smyrna and into other cities as well. Many people read Delaware State News, so now our name is even more well known now than we ever thought it would be!

Seatbelt Check Results!

By now you probably know that our seatbelt check last week was pretty successful. We are very excited to announce that out of everyone that drove to school last Wednesday, about 116 people had their seatbelts on, while only seven did not. As you know, we gave out Smarties to those who had their seatbelts on and Dum Dum lollipops to the ones who didn't. We ran out of Smarties quickly!

Drinking and Driving Week!

This week we wanted to focus on drinking and driving, so we tried to think of an activity in which we could include everyone in school. We thought, with prom not too far away, this would be the perfect topic. So we decided to get everyone involved in a contest during lunches. We named the activity "Blow a Bubble not a Breathalizer." Students had to come to our table and pledge to not drink and drive and sign our giant poster, which will be hung in a central location in the school. After people pledged, they got to take two pieces of bubble gum. If they wanted to, they could get together with a group of about five people and have a bubble blowing contest! The winners were judged by us and they won a big cookie. We also had drunk goggles that students could put on. They were able to simulate the attempt of walking in a straight line while under the influence. This seemed to have been our most successful activity yet!

As a Followup

Standing with our school Human resources councelor and police officer, Officer Bill.

As a followup to Seatbelt Safety Week last week, we were able to contact local Delaware Community Traffic Safety Program (CTSP) Coordinator, Merrit Burke IV, from University of Delaware. He visited Smyrna High yesterday to help re-paint the "buckle up" signs on the two entryways leading into the school parking lots. He showed us how to paint the signs using stencils and then putting reflective beads on the paint to make it more noticeable. Now they look brand new!

First we had to sweep away all the rocks and dust. Then we laid a stensil over the old sign and painted it with white.

After pulling away the stencil, we had our final product.

Last week we also met with Brooks Banta, the Delaware Kent County Levy Court Representative. We presented him with a Safe Driving pin and he then gave us some of his own opinions on safe driving. We disussed what we've done so far and what we plan to do. He responded to many of our ideas and agreed with some of our points on distracted driving, saying that talking and texting on cell phones while driving is especially dangerous for teens. He said he tries to be as safe as possible when it comes to using phones on the roads. He uses speaker phone whenever possible and he pulls over to the side of the road if he must make a phone call that takes more than five minutes. Afterwards, he discussed some of the county's upcoming plans.

Progress So Far

We just want to thank everyone for supporting us so far. We know that we just announced this morning that everyone should sign the petition for NOYS and we've already gotten a great response. We looked at the list of signatures and we know for sure that we have at least 44 people who've signed it from Smyrna High so far. This even includes teachers and our principal. Also, the Facebook page seems to be a big hit. We have about 90 members now.

Pretty soon we'll have the results, pictures, and video from the Seatbelt check on Wednesday. They are impressive... Let's just say that we ran out of Smarties! ;)

Seat Belt News Article

This week's news article, which will be featured in the Smyrna Sun Times, dealt with this week's theme: seatbelts. The article mentions the accident in our last post...

Seatbelt Safety

Seatbelt us saves lives! However, one-quarter of youth do not use their seatbelts- this is the worst non-belt use rate of any age group.

If you could save friends' lives by asking them to fasten their seatbelts, would you? If you were asked, by a friend, to put your on, would you? Statistics tell us 69% of youth would ask a teen driver to fasten their seatbelt, but only 24% of the drivers polled said they would fasten their seatbelt if asked by a passenger.

In August, 2008, five members of Smyrna High's Class of 2008 were traveling in a car that flipped one and a half times. All five were transported to the hospital via ambulance. And all five walked out of the hospital on their own.

Why? Because all were wearing their seatbelts. The outcome of this could have been horrific. Instead, it's a lesson for all of us.

Ask any of these five and they will say the same thing... 'Wear your seatbelt!" They no longer believe "it can't happen to me..." And they buckle up... every time.

If you can believe it...

This week was seat belt safety week, and as we've said before, we will be putting up weekly discussion boards on our Facebook page, "Smyrna Drives to Save Lives!". This week, because we focused on seat belts, we posted four questions that group members could reply to and comment about, one of which was whether or not they or a family member or close friend had ever been involved in a car accident and how seat belts were involved. Did the seat belts make a difference and how might the situation have been any different if seat belts were not used? Out of the responses, some of them invloved a recent accident that we will never forget.

The above crash ivolved some very close friends and family members of ours. The car rolled one and a half times and none of the people in the car were under the influence or drinking alcohol. All five people were rushed to the hospital...

Luckily, all of them were able to walk out of the hospital that very night. We are all very fortunate, because if they hadn't been wearing their seatbelts, they could have been extremely hurt or worse. They might not even be with us today. This incident is a constant reminder that seatbelts are life savers. Wearing them makes all the difference.

Discussions

Hey everyone! Now that our facebook page is up and running, we'll be starting a new discussion board every week . We'll ask questions about a certain topic and everyone can answer them and leave comments. Everyone can participate! This week's topic is seatbelts.

Oh, The Possibilities...

This week we all met at a local restaurant to make plans for our campaign.

We have many things in store, including a Facebook page, which by the way, has already been put into effect. We just made it yesterday and we already have many members. Over 45! At dinner we discussed ways in which we can further reach out within the community. One of our upcoming activities will be a surprise seatbelt check at school in the morning. We'll check to see if students are wearing their seatbelts on the way to school. If they are, they'll recieve a Smarties candy. If they aren't, they'll get a Dum-Dum lollipop.

Here's our new facebook page!

P.S. We also spent quite some time marvelling over our newly acquired video camera for the project :)

Our Newspaper Debut!

As part of our way to kick off our safe driving campaign we'll be putting this article, written by one of our committee members, in our local newspaper. We thought that in this way, we could reach more people!

Eagles Drive to Save Lives

Every year the Act Out Load Organization holds a contest for safe driving. This year five students at Smyrna High School were chosen to participate in the national contest. Emiley Conboy, Kasey Spadafino, Melissa Hubert, Kailyn Asbury, and Maggie Humphrey are all juniors and are members of the team that is trying to make the roads a safer place. The team name is Soaring Eagles and their motto is “Smyrna Drives to Save Lives.” The Contest is running March through May. During this time the group will be taping and blogging about their attempts to influence the public to drive safely. The Soaring Eagles have several avenues they will take to accomplish their goals. They will first have a weekly column in the Eagle Eye portion of the newspaper. To go along with these tips there will be commercials that will be on the morning announcement s, as well as posters hung up all over school. The team will be sponsoring safe driving pledges and will encourage students and faculty to sign them. There will be pictures taken of students who sign them and they will be put on display. There will also be a Facebook group dedicated to the Soaring Eagles and their safe driving campaign. Students who support the cause are welcome to join. The team also has created a special ribbon with a road pattern which will be given out to those who support the cause and want to raise awareness for the various dangers of bad driving habits. The final results of the contest will be determined by a vote near the end of the school year. Keep your eyes on the road and adhere to the tips and information that will be coming up from the Soaring Eagles. It may just save your life.