For Immediate Release
August 20, 2007
Contact: Julie Brewer
931-372-6333
www.seatbeltvolunteer.org

BOOSTER SEAT SAFETY PROGRAM HELD AT NORTHEAST SCHOOL

Campaign features Ollie the Otter safety mascot

COOKEVILLE - On Aug. 14, students at Northeast Elementary 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. The program is sponsored by the Tennessee Transportation Development Foundation – a non-profit group established by the Tennessee Road Builders Association – and the TRBA’s Ladies Auxiliary. The statewide safety education program will make presentations in all 95 counties in Tennessee this year. 

The Ollie Otter program communicates the state law requirement that children 8 years or younger and under 4-feet-9 inches tall must ride in a booster seat. 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.

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.

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

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

Coleman and Julie Brewer, coordinator of the Ollie Otter safety program, presented two programs to Northeast’s pre-K through third grade students. Joining Coleman and Brewer were Officer Mike Herrick, of the Cookeville City Police Department, and several volunteers from the Tennessee Technology Center (TTC) at Livingston.  

Principal Fay Borden and teachers Mike Phillips and Kristen Duncan helped coordinate the safety education event at Northeast. Performing as Ollie Otter were Shelly Scantland and Joshua Redmond, students from TTC at Livingston. Additional volunteers with TTC at Livingston included Terry Sparks, instructor of automotive technology, and students Jim McCloud and Michael Martin.

“Tennessee Technology Centers are glad to help,” said Sparks. “We like to do things for the community and like to be a part of the community. It’s good to give back because the community has been so good to us.”

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 26 Tennessee Technology Centers across the state have joined the campaign to encourage TTC students to take an active role in community leadership by becoming booster seat safety volunteers. The volunteers from TTC at Livingston have played a leadership role in launching the seatbelt safety program.

“Tennessee is the first state to do a statewide booster seat and seatbelt safety campaign,” said Kevin Liska, director of the TTU BusinessMedia Center. “In the coming months, all Tennessee Technology Centers across the state will be following Livingston’s example.”  
  The unprecedented educational safety campaign was launched last April.

“Through the use of emerging business technologies, we’re able to train volunteers online how to go into elementary schools and promote roadway safety through the entertaining Ollie Otter character,” said Brewer, program coordinator with the TTU BusinessMedia Center. “Nothing has ever been done like this before, especially at this magnitude. We are so grateful for the wonderful network of concerned volunteers who are really the ones making this campaign possible.”

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 parents about seatbelt safety.

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