Oklahoma’s Ada High School Rallies Community Behind Texting and Driving Problem, Placing First Among Hundreds in National Competition
Winnings Include $10,000 and a concert from musical artist Ashlyne Huff from The Allstate Foundation and Channel One News
ADA, Okla., Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Determined Ada High School students spent weeks knocking on doors, handing out fliers, sending emails, talking to friends, family members – anyone who would listen – about the dangers of texting and driving and urging community members to pledge to X the TXT(SM) in a national competition. When the votes were tallied, Ada High School accomplished what hundreds of high schools across America could not: rallying the highest percentage of participation (calculated as a percentage of school size) to take the pledge not to text and drive.
“The contest was important because life is fragile and, while I’m a competitive person, it made me feel good to know that of the hundreds of students who participated, we’ve probably saved at least one of their lives from a texting while driving collision,” said Colton Lott, an Ada High School student who helped lead the effort.
The win earned the school a $10,000 grant from The Allstate Foundation, as well as a private concert from rising singer/songwriter Ashlyne Huff, who will appear at Ada High at a planned event in May during National Youth Traffic Safety Month. To kick off the concert and day-long festivities, Channel One, the leading television news network for teens, will tape a broadcast from Ada High, which will be seen by an audience of nearly six million young people in middle schools and high schools across the country.
“When I heard about the contest, I said ‘We can do it, we can win this,’” commented Ali Lawson, the Ada High leadership teacher who spearheaded the campaign, along with her service learning classes of 115 sophomores, juniors and seniors. “The students were the catalysts for the campaign, but the whole community pitched in,” continued Lawson, “from the local college, to the town’s small businesses, to the Chickasaw Nation, headquartered in Ada. It was a true community effort.”
“I am thrilled that a school in our community achieved this win and that Allstate offers programs like this that are life-changing experiences for our teens,” said local Allstate representative, Brenda Allford. “The X the TXT movement has made a strong mark on Ada and we won’t soon forget it.”
The competition was created by The Allstate Foundation and Channel One News through a partnership to grow
Article source: PRNewswire
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