For Immediate Release
October 17, 2007
Contact: Julie Brewer
931-372-6333
www.seatbeltvolunteer.org

Eagleton Elementary school students measure their height with Ollie Otter, Tennessee's booster seat and seatbelt safety mascot. The Ollie Otter program visited the school to raise awareness of Tennessee's state law requiring the use of a booster seat until a child is 4-feet-9 inches tall or 9 years old.

Ollie Otter, Tennessee's booster seat and seatbelt safety mascot, greets students at Eagleton Elementary on Oct. 4. The Ollie Otter program visited the school to raise awareness of Tennessee's state law requiring the use of a booster seat until a child is 4-feet-9 inches tall or 9 years old.

BOOSTER SEAT SAFETY PROGRAM HELD AT EAGLETON ELEMENTARY

Campaign features Ollie the Otter safety mascot

Blount County - On Oct. 4, students at Eagleton Elementary school received a visit from a very special guest. Ollie Otter, Tennessee’s booster seat and seatbelt safety mascot, visited the school to promote the use of booster seats, encourage students to wear their seatbelts and to raise awareness of roadway construction site safety. Ollie’s message to the students was “You ‘OTTER’ buckle up!”

Ollie was joined by several volunteers working to increase booster seat and seatbelt usage among Tennessee’s elementary school children.

Michael Aikens, media specialist with the Tennessee Tech University BusinessMedia Center, presented the program to Eagleton’s kindergarten through fifth grade students. Principal Jerry Bailey helped coordinate the safety education event at the school.

“One of the things we have had trouble with in our school is making sure that our children leave in the afternoon buckled up or are in booster seats,” said Principal Bailey.

“This program has been really educational in helping introduce [Tennessee’s booster seat law] to the kids. I want to encourage all principals across the state to enlist this program at their school and see how much fun they can have learning about a safety issue.”

Additional volunteers at Eagleton included representatives from the Tennessee Technology Center at Knoxville. Among them were Boyd Hestand, Mona Palmer, Doris Rigby and Thomas Toney.

The 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. The statewide safety education program will make presentations in all 95 counties in Tennessee this year.

The Ollie Otter program communicates 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 the importance of roadway safety near construction work zones. The fully-costumed Ollie Otter character encourages children to wear their seatbelts and educates them about Tennessee’s booster seat law.

“Our goal is to try to educate children through the Ollie Otter program about Tennessee’s child restraint law,” said Carol Coleman, chairperson of the TTDF.

“Hopefully, children will encourage their caregivers, or whoever is driving them around, to make better safety decisions.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2005, an average of five children ages 14 and younger were killed and 640 were injured in motor vehicle crashes every day. The use of booster seats compared to the use of adult seatbelts alone lowers the risk of injury to children in crashes by 59 percent.

The Ollie Otter program is implemented by a network of statewide volunteers who work through the Tennessee Tech University BusinessMedia Center in Cookeville to coordinate the presentations. The unprecedented educational safety campaign was launched last May.

The safety campaign has partnered with the Tennessee Board of Regents’ 26 Tennessee Technology Centers across the state to encourage TTC students to take an active roll in community leadership by becoming booster seat safety volunteers.

To prepare volunteers to conduct the in-school presentations and perform as the costumed Ollie Otter, an online training course has been developed by the TTU BusinessMedia Center through the Tennessee Board of Regents Online Continuing Education program. ROCE hosts the online course and certifies the completion of the class.

The Ollie Otter program uses educational materials, such as posters, bookmarks and an interactive Web site, to inform Tennessee children and their caregivers about seatbelt safety.

To sign up as a volunteer, schedule a visit from Ollie, or learn more about Tennessee’s booster seat and seatbelt safety campaign, visit www.seatbeltvolunteer.org.