Miami University's Athletic Department has teamed up with Miami's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) to educate Oxford youth on the importance of wearing a seat belt.
According to senior Claire Dickerson, a leader of the PRSSA chapter at Miami, the effort is part of a yearly nationwide competition held by the PRSSA.
"We are working for Safe Kids Greater Dayton," Dickerson said. "This year (the goal) was to raise awareness of seatbelt safety with children, age 11 through 14."
Dickerson explained that Safe Kids Greater Dayton is a part of the Safe Kids Worldwide organization, which is the only international nonprofit organization dedicated solely to preventing unintentional childhood injury.
The group has organized a multifaceted plan to remind students at Talawanda Middle School of the importance of wearing a seat belt.
Dickerson explained that Feb. 6, student athletes from Miami would visit the school to encourage students to buckle up.
"They went to the schools in October and all the students seemed influenced by the athletes," Dickerson said. "So hopefully they will view them as role models."
According to Dickerson, only 41 percent of Oxford teens currently buckle up every time they get in a car. Dickerson says she hopes the program will help change this statistic.
"They all know they're supposed to (buckle up)," Dickerson said. "We're trying to make it seem cool and acceptable. We hope that they'll see people they look up to doing it, and then they'll want to do it too."
Anthony Azama, director of marketing for intercollegiate athletics at Miami, says that it's important for Miami athletics to be a part of events on campus and in the community outside of sporting events.
"We're always looking for opportunities to get our student athletes and coaches involved in the community in different ways," Azama said. "We were able to get with Claire to put the final touches on an opportunity to go right into the classroom and utilize that opportunity to really do some unique things at our basketball and hockey games."
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According to Azama, his staff will select student athletes from nine different sports to represent Miami University athletics at Talawanda Wednesday.
In addition to bringing in the student athletes to speak with the students, Dickerson explained that PRSSA would hold a raffle drawing throughout the week to reward students for wearing seat belts. Parents will verify whether their children are buckling up and then for each day they buckle up, the child's name will be put into the drawing for prizes such as tickets to a Miami basketball or hockey game, a signed football and t-shirts.
PRSSA has also partnered with other community organizations and businesses to further promote the campaign. According to Dickerson, the Oxford Police Department will be distributing information about proper seat belt usage to drivers they pull over for traffic violations.
She also explained that the gelato and coffee shop uptown, Iggie's, agreed to design a seat belt cookie to distribute at the schools.
"Hopefully kids will correlate the positive things with seat belts and cookies together," Dickerson said.
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