Staff writer
Marion High School’s Seatbelts Are For Everyone group is asking for help to win the school a big prize.
The “Celebrate My Drive” campaign gives two schools around the country a chance to win $100,000 and a concert by Kelly Clarkson. Eight more schools will win $100,000, and 90 others will be awarded $25,000.
“For a national contest, those are pretty good odds,” SAFE coordinator Lori McLinden said.
High school students will vote daily in their English classes. People can vote for their school once a day between Oct. 18 and 26.
“A certain percent of the money won would go into school safety programs,” McLinden said. “The rest the school could use for whatever they want.”
Celebrate My Drive is part of SAFE groups across the countries national teen driver safety week. The groups work to promote safety through seatbelt use.
The MHS chapter does several surveys throughout the year to see how many high school students are wearing their seatbelts. McLinden said their first survey conducted last Wednesday showed 86.6 percent of students were wearing their seatbelts.
“That’s a really good number,” she said. “It’s the highest amount we’ve ever had since forming the SAFE program here.”
She said the program has had good luck with winning SAFE contests. The group won a state Facebook contest the previous year after setting up a computer at a basketball game.
The group will conduct several events to raise awareness at the Hillsboro-Marion football game Oct. 25.
“We’ll have crash dummies Vince and Larry, that will help with the flag salute, and a crash simulator at the game,” she said. “We’ll also have drawings for prizes all to raise awareness that seatbelts save lives.”