Final Results!

In March, we began as a hopeful and dedicated group of high school students seeking an opportunity to encourage our student population to wear seatbelts.
When we discovered that Act Out Loud had selected us as one of the finalists, we were ecstatic that the opportunity had finally arrived.
We started our campaign with a seatbelt count, and were disappointed that only 77.9% of CSHS students were protected with seatbelts.
Motivated to change this discouraging statistic, we campaigned tirelessly with the help of a TV station, various newspapers, and our school's electronic billboard, daily announcements, parent and student newspapers.
We invited officers from AZ DPS to come to our school, bringing a car-crash simulator, beer googles, flyers, microphones, and speakers along with them.
We visited the middle school to spread awareness there as well.

On Wednesday, April 29th, ending our Buckle Up campaign, the SADD Falcons finally conducted their second seatbelt count.
We are thrilled to share the wonderful news!
Out of the 1274 counted,
1035 students were wearing their seatbelts! This means that 81.24% of Cactus Shadows drivers are belted, nearly 3.5% higher than before our campaign!
These 1035 belted occupants were waving, smiling, and pointing at their seatbelts while they drove past us at the parking lot entrances, proud that they are now a part of the Buckle Up campaign.

Clearly, our Buckle Up campaign had made a significant impact at our school.


CHECK OUT OUR FINAL VIDEO HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLHgtxU7iRY

We would like to thank you to everyone who had helped us spreading our campaign:
AZ Department of Public Safety
Our fantastic All-State Representatives: Cassie O'Brien and Melissa Wilson
ABC15 News
Sonoran News
Scottsdale Independent
Desert Arroyo Middle School & Cactus Shadows High School
Our lovely advisor Mrs. Ward :)
Act Out Loud for giving us an opportunity to make a difference at our community,
and YOU! Thank you for following our blog and supporting our belief :)

We would like to end our campaign with this amazing news all the way from Florida:

Washington DC May 6, 2009; U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today applauded Florida for enacting a new primary seat belt law that is expected to save the lives of more than one hundred Floridians each year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belt use is the most effective protection against serious crash injuries, reducing the risk by 50 percent.

"We are pleased that Florida has joined the 27
other states that have adopted primary seat belt laws to save lives on their highways," said Secretary LaHood. "Wearing your seat belt is vitally important
and helps determine whether someone will ultimately walk away from a
crash."

NHTSA estimates that, with the passage of its primary belt law, Florida will save 124 lives, prevent 1,733 serious injuries, and save $408 million in associated costs each year.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/05/07/459985.html

[We, CSHS SADD from Arizona, love this good news :)]

Buckle Up and Make it a Habit, America! (and make sure you vote for us :D)

~CSHS SADD Falcons

CSHS SADD visits the middle school after a successful presentation with AZ DPS and Rollover Randy

The week of April 13th had been an amazing week for us!
We've had Rollover Randy and officers from Arizona's DPS come to our campus, and we also went to the middle school to raise seatbelt awareness there! But before we get into the middle school presentations, we would like you guys to see a video summarizing our AWESOME day on Tuesday:

We have reached beyond our school perimeter with the help of ABC15 news and our All State representatives. Now our Buckle Up project is well known not only in the Creek, but throughout Phoenix as well!

Now... onto the middle school goodies :)

From Wednesday to Thursday, 10 SADD members visited Desert Arroyo Middle School to conduct presentations about the importance of seatbelt use. We made the presentations as fun and interactive as possible, and were glad that the middle schoolers were cooperative and attentive to our message.

First, we asked how many of their parents wear a seatbelt, and how many of the students wear a seatbelt. Then, we asked the big question: "Why do you think wearing a seatbelt is so important when you're on the road?", while handing out treats to students who participated. We discovered that most middle schoolers in our classrooms habitually wear their seatbelt because:

1. Their parents make them to, which is excellent.

2. They realize that seatbelt keeps you in place during an accident.

We were thrilled to hear these responses from the eighth graders! After a few more interactive questions, we gave them some statistics:

In every 5 minutes, there is a car crash in our nation.

In every 13 minutes, someone dies from a car accident. That means four every class period.

63% of people who died in car accidents were not wearing seatbelts.

...and many more!

Fionna and Tyler (and Beth behind the camera) sharing the importance of seatbelt at an 8th grade Spanish classroom.

Thank you to the lovely DAMS teachers who allowed us to take 15 minutes of your class(es)!

P.S. Prom is TOMORROW! Have fun and be safe, everyone :)
CSHS SADD Falcons

CSHS SADD on ABC15

President Fionna Feller and VP Beth Bowen is working hard to spread seatbelt awareness beyond our community!

Enough Talk, Let's See Some Action!

Hey everyone, we had an extremely successful day today! Here is the breakdown:

5:20AM
ABC15 news came to our school this morning at 5:30AM to interview Fionna Feller and Beth Bowen (President and VP, respectively) on our Buckle Up campaign.
We are so excited to be live on TV to spread this important campaign to our community. Thank you to our All State representatives and Isaac, an ABC15 crew!

Check us out at:

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/north/story/Valley-teens-put-the-brakes-on-unsafe-driving/TIeE0Ucxbk6-_xL_YEyDlA.cspx

8:00AM-9:AM
We appeared on the school announcements to tell everybody to check out Rollover Randy during both lunches!

10:30-12:40PM
Three wonderful officers from Arizona's Department of Public Safety visited our school during lunch hours. They brought Rollover Randy, a car crash simulation that showed the consequences of not wearing seatbelts in a car accident. With our SADD members helping nearby, we conducted games with the beer googles- such as throwing balls into a bucket, walking in a straight line, and many more! We had speakers and microphones to blast our important message to the whole campus, and we are happy to announce that we had a great turnout and response from the students!

Curious, we approached one of the students who were watching the Rollover Randy, and asked her what were her thoughts on the presentation. She replied that she was grateful that SADD is sponsoring DPS to come to our school and spread the Buckle Up campaign. She confessed that she had been in a car with a drunk driver and would like everyone to know the dangers of the situation. "Everybody needs to know this", she said. And that is what we are here for. We are here to help promote traffic safety, and by campaigning buckle up, we hope to save many from making destructive decisions and make the roads safer for everyone.

Another ABC15 reporter visited our school AGAIN during the Rollover Randy presentations. President Fionna Feller appeared on the news once again.


As our school's prom approaches this Saturday, we would like to wish everyone a safe and fun prom! Don't drink and drive! Go rent a limo, have fun, and be safe!

Love,
Cactus Shadows SADD!

First Seatbelt Count Video!

Our awesome members: Beth, Fionna, Tyler, Jaclyn, Tiffany, and Charlene counting seatbelts!
Our other wonderful members Michelle, Katrina, Lindsay, and Leah are also working on the East Campus and Fine Arts Center parking lot entrances.
Well done, Falcons!

First Seatbelt Count Results!

Hello!

On March 25, we conducted our first seatbelt count at our school’s parking lot entrances. We began to count at 7:10 AM and ended at 7:40 AM.

Of the 1283 counted, almost 300 students were not wearing seatbelts. That's more than one-fifth of our school population!
This is lower than the Arizona state average seatbelt use rate of 82%.
Here are the details:
Belted students: 999 (77.9%)
Students not belted: 284 (22.1%)

We are determined to change this statistic! Now that our plans are finalized, we are heading to the middle school to spread more awareness about the importance of seatbelt use next Wednesday through Friday.

A car crash simulator called Rollover Randy will also be visiting our school on Wednesday. We hope that this simulation will open many students' eyes of the values of seatbelt use while in a car.

P.S. We are also extremely excited of being featured in Sonoran News on April 1st concerning our Buckle Up campaign!

As Spring Break Ends, M.I.A.H. Begins!

Although we are slowly adjusting back into school mode again after spring break, we are in full speed ahead on our exciting MIAH project (Make It A Habit). Let's take a quick look of what's cooking in our Falcons kitchen:

Tomorrow, we will conduct out first seatbelt count before school. 10 SADD members will be posted on all CSHS parking lot entrances, with 2 students on each station, and record the number of students wearing and not wearing seatbelts. This data will be our point of comparison to our second seatbelt count, which will be performed after prom and our MIAH campaign.

We are also looking forward to raise seatbelt use awareness to the middle school, especially to 7th and 8th graders. We have conversed with the principal and are happy to announce that Desert Arroyo Middle School will be joining us in making seatbelt use a habit! CSHS SADD will visit the middle school twice and deliver informational and memorable presentations to the middle schoolers about the importance of seatbelt use.

Concerning our publicity, we are grateful to be featured in CSHS PRESS and Falcon Flyer on the March edition. These allow us to reach all of the CSHS student body, faculty, and parents.
Our SADD President had also appeared on CSHS video announcements in attempt to further promote MIAH on campus.

Today, we will be discussing and finalizing our plans for the rest of the week. The CSHS Falcons shall retire to our nests early tonight since we have to be at our posts tomorrow by 7.10 AM for the seatbelt count!

We hope you had a wonderful and relaxing spring break!