Booster Seat Safety Program Featured at Superintendent's Conference
For Immediate Release
September 09, 2008
Contact: Julie Brewer
931-372-3318
www.seatbeltvolunteer.org
BOOSTER SEAT SAFETY PROGRAM FEATURED AT SUPERINTENDENT'S CONFERENCE
Campaign features Ollie the Otter safety mascot
SEVIER COUNTY— Ollie the Otter, the Booster Seat and Seatbelt Safety Mascot, recently attended the Annual Superintendent’s Conference (SSC) in Gatlinburg, TN. Kevin Liska and Julie Brewer of the BusinessMedia Center were asked by program partner Commissioner Mitchell of the Department of Safety and Homeland Defense to speak at the conference and promote the life-saving program.
The presentation included a visit from Ollie and introduced the new “Ollie School Signup Kit” which includes Ollie bookmarks for distribution, a rollout measuring poster to be featured at the school, the latest Ollie newsletter with instructions on how to get Ollie to your school, a seatbelt safety advocate sign up poster, and the Ollie CD Toolkit, which provides step-by-step information on how to conduct an Ollie presentation. Seventy-two kits were signed out by school superintendents after the on-stage presentation.
Commissioner Mitchell said the Ollie Otter program is “a great example of a public/private partnership working in tandem to improve highway safety…which champions booster seat and seatbelt usage among Tennessee school children.”
Ollie Otter helps communicate to children and their families that Tennessee state law requires the use of a booster seat until a child is 4-feet-9 inches tall or 9 years old. An orange and white construction site barrel, representing Ollie’s home, is on display to teach the children and their parents the importance of roadway safety near construction work zones.
The statewide education program is sponsored by the Tennessee Transportation Development Foundation (TTDF) – a non-profit group established by the Tennessee Road Builders Association – and the TRBA Ladies Auxiliary.
During its first year, the Ollie Otter program was able to visit at least one school in all of Tennessee’s 95 counties. The program is implemented by a network of statewide volunteers who work through Tennessee Tech University BusinessMedia Center in Cookeville to coordinate the elementary school presentations. "The unprecedented educational safety campaign is under consideration for replication in other states" said Kevin Liska, director with TTU BusinsesMedia Center.
Volunteers can bring Ollie to events in their community by signing up on the mascot’s website www.seatbeltvolunteer.org.
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