15th Anniversary of Keep Kids Alive Drive 25®

15^th Anniversary of 

Keep Kids Alive Drive 25®

The Everson Home, Omaha NE
Where Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® was born.

An idea first conceived during an early morning run in July, 1998, Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 has grown into a national non-profit based in Omaha, NE observing our 15^th anniversary with a two-fold mission:

      1. Educating and engaging motorists in being the solution to traffic safety concerns by focusing on safe driving behaviors on neighborhood streets, and beyond.

     2. Supporting families of those who die in traffic incidents

Highlights of Keep Kids Alive Drive 25’s 15-year history include:

·         Collaborating to initiate community-based traffic safety education campaigns with law enforcement –over 500 agencies, neighborhood groups, public works, schools, businesses, and civic organizations in over 1,400 communities representing 49 States, 3 Canadian Provinces, Queensland State, Australia, and the Bahamas

·         Creating signature traffic safety education campaigns, including Keep Kids Alive Drive 25®, Stop! Take 3 To See®, It’s Not A Race! Create Space®, Be Aware! Drive With Care®, Seat Belts-FASTENATING!®, No Need To Speed®, and Check Your Speed®

·         The first pre/post study on the effect of a neighborhood KKAD25 yard sign campaign in Oceanside, CA which showed a 16% reduction in average speeds – published in the Urban Transportation Monitor, a traffic engineering periodical. Traffic engineers from as far away as Australia inquired about the benefits of Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 campaigns for local communities.

KKAD25 Yard Sign Campaign in Oceanside, CA

·         The first pre/post study on the effects of utilizing trash can decals to engage all residents in sending the Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® message curbside in Oro Valley, AZ, which showed a 13.5% reduction in average speeds to 24.5 mph in 25 mph zones.

·         Building upon Oro Valley’s success to establish the “America’s Trash Talks to Keep KidsAlive” campaign, with sponsorship from GEICO, to assist communities throughout the U.S. in getting the message out curbside.

America’s Trash Talks in Joliet, IL

·         New Berlin, WI which through the direction of the Police Dept. has grown their campaign every year since 1999 – a 14-year run.

·         Supporting families of victims throughout the U.S. in creating legacies in honor of their loved ones. These have included legislative action (including HB 87 in Texas, which in 2005 changed State Law regarding ability of municipalities to lower speed limits in residential zones), memorial events, foundations, and educational campaigns.

Kyle Foster, inspiration for Texas HB 87

  

·         Establishing Live Forward!™ in 2013, an initiative designed to further the work of assisting families in establishing legacies to bring greater good into the world in honor of their loved ones.

·         Creating the “Run to Remember” team which since 2007 has taken on the Pikes Peak Ascent Trail Race each year in honor of loved ones who have died in traffic incidents and to raise awareness about the need to practice safe driving behaviors.

2012 Run to Remember Team at the Summit of Pikes Peak

·         Establishing the annual Run-Walk to Remember in Omaha to draw together family and friends of those who have died to honor their lives and to raise awareness throughout the community. In addition to Nebraska, participants have come from Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, and Washington.

2013 Omaha Run-Walk to Remember

·         Fremont Contract Carriers of Fremont, NE and R&M Transportation of Omaha, NE affixing “It’s Not A Race! Create Space®” decals to tractor-trailers to move the message onto roadways across America thanks to a grant from the Nebraska Office for Highway Safety.

“It’s Not A Race! Create Space®” decal on FCC Trailer

·         The Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 logo appeared on Dateline NBC as the lead-in for a segment on neighborhood traffic safety.

·         “Be Aware! Drive With Care®” yard sign was featured as the lead-in to an episode of Modern Family in May 2013

Corporate Sponsors and Partners, including:

• GEICO Philanthropic Fund
• Ford Motor Company Fund's Driving Skills for Life
• Plymouth Rock - Teachers' Insurance of New Jersey
• UPS
• Enterprise Rent-a-Car Foundation
• Clear Channel Communications - Omaha
• AAA Cornhusker Motor Club

Legacy Partners - Click on Names to Visit Web Sites

• Conor Lynch Foundation
• Erika Joy Rowan Foundation 
• Cady Ann Reynolds - C.A.R. Foundation
• Alexa's Hugs
• Graeme Preston Foundation 
• Matt's Dream

·         Articles in Parents Magazine and Ladies Home Journal

·         Presenting at numerous national & regional conferences & meetings on neighborhood traffic safety, including Lifesavers, Neighborhoods USA, the Environmental Industries Association, and multiple community forums in New Jersey, California, Arizona, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma.

·         Recognition from the Omaha Police Dept. with the Spirit of Neighborhood Courage Award & by the Nebraska Chapter of the National Safety Council with the B’nai B’rith Safety Award.

·         Establishment of "A License to Live" to engage high school students in creating peer-to-peer safe driving educational campaigns with support from Ford Motor Company’s Driving Skills for Life.

The Future Business Leaders of America Class at

Friend High School in Nebraska kick-off local campaign

 Favorite Testimonial:

"My community – Coppell, Texas – made headlines two years ago as it tackled this issue. As a traffic engineer by training, I was hesitant of this program and lobbied the City Council to consider other engineering, enforcement, and education alternatives so that ‘mobility’ was maintained. I have to say that since this program was adopted and the speed limits on our streets lowered (5 mph) I do feel like I am keeping my village’s children safer, that I am more alert, that I am more in control of my vehicle, that I do share those streets with pedestrians, that my ‘mobility’ has not been greatly impeded, and that streets are not for the sole purpose of drivers in vehicles trying to make their way as quickly as they can in our hurried world."

Jason Crawford, P.E
Texas Transportation Institute

Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 looks forward to continued growth in educating motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists alike to engage in behaviors that keep all people safe on and around roadways across America, and across the world as well. Learn more at www.KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org.

Tom Everson

Executive Director & Founder

Keep Kids Alive Drive 25®  A Non-Profit "For Action" Organization 501c3

12418 C Street

Omaha, NE 68144

402-334-1391

kkad25@kkad25.org

Can the Rule of 10,000 Keep Kids Alive?

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has done much to popularize the "10,000 Hour Rule," - the idea that 10,000 hours of practice at any one pursuit helps make one an expert. If this hypothesis is true, what would happen to crash, injury, and death rates on roadways if each and every driver committed to 10,000 hours, or even 10,000 repetitions, of practice on all key driving skills necessary to keep everyone safe on and around roadways?

Here is a list of a few of the basic skills we each can include in our 10,000 repetitions safe-driving exercise regimen:

What if every time any one of us gets behind the wheel, our first thoughts are, "I am going to drive safely. I am going to...

...walk around the vehicle to make sure no children are hiding in blind spots 

...turn off my cell phone and set it aside until I reach my destination

...buckle up and make sure all passengers are buckled up as well

 

...observe all posted speed limits in neighborhoods and beyond, and adjust downward due to presence of children at play, cyclists, road and weather conditions

...create space - at least 3 to 4 seconds between my vehicle and others around me, so I have time to react to the driving behaviors of others

...be a thinker and use my blinker to signal all turns and lane changes

...stop - take 3 to see at all stop signs regardless of whether or not anyone is present - it is my chance to practice making complete stops so I am ready the one time that someone does seem to appear out of nowhere

...observe all traffic signals and traffic signs

Practice each and every one of these skills for 10,000 hours or 10,000 repetitions. Send us a report on how your driving behaviors change over time to kkad25@kkad25.org. 

Finally, think of the ones you love, the ones who are waiting for you to return home safely. Ask the questions:

"Who do I love" and "who loves me?" 

May the faces of all the loved ones you picture in your mind give you the "will" to practice the driving skills necessary to keep kids (of all ages) alive and to make safe driving behaviors a lifetime, life-preserving, and life-saving habit. 

Learn more about how to begin a "Keep Kids Alive" educational campaign in your community @ www.KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org

"Like" KKAD25 on Facebook

Donate to support our mission at KKAD25 Donate

Your generous giving keeps kids living.

Live Forward! Keeping Kids & Memories Alive

Live Forward! supports families in the wake of the death of a loved one due to a traffic-related incident. Live Forward! is all about bringing great good into the world by creating living legacies in honor and memory of each of these loved ones.

It begins with a loved one’s name on the back of our KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® Run to Remember Team t-shirts as we take on the Pike's Peak Ascent Trail Race August 17, 2013 – a chief fund-raiser to support these families. It expands as families create events, community actions, projects, new campaigns, and support for establishing new foundations to bring ongoing good into the world. 



Here are a few examples of Live Forward! actions from the past several years:



• Establishment of "It's Not A Race! Create Space" in honor of James Davis  
  
• Testimony for Texas HB 87 establishing a new law in setting residential speed limits in honor of Kyle Foster 
  
• Supporting the Project Citizen class at Miami Lakes Middle School to enact a local ordinance governing school zone speeds in honor of Shaye Martin
 
  
• Collaborating with students at Colts Neck, NJ High School, the Graeme Preston Foundation, and Plymouth Rock Insurance to hold a "Keep Kids Alive 5K Run" to raise funds to begin a Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 campaign in Monmouth County

• Support the "Run to Honor Conor," an event of the Conor Lynch Foundation in Sherman Oaks, CA. The Ford Motor Company Fund's "Driving Skills for Life" provided funding for our involvement
 
  
• Donating key chains, decals, as well as presence at community events honoring Andrew Brumback, Erika Joy Rowan, Shannon Lloyd, Justin Faust, Anthony Henry, Cady Reynolds, Nick Peters, Kyle Clark, Brandon McPherson,and Natalie DeLeon
 
  
   
                     
    
  
• 2 Run-Walk to Remember events in Omaha - supported by the families of Kylie Remmereid, Christopher Lantz, Bryn Dirkschneider, Skyler Dickey, Cady Ann Reynolds, Mikey Rice, J.T. Butrick-Chase,and Brandon Bruggeman
 
   
• Partnering with Dacobi KC, owned by Denise McPherson, Brandon's mom, to create "Run to Remember" shirts for families connected with our annual Run to Remember as part of the Pikes Peak Ascent Trail Race. Our team is preparing to participate for the 7th straight year August 17, 2013 - more information below.


• Meet more of the loved ones we remember @ "Faces of Keep Kids Alive"

We look forward to adding to this list as new opportunities to Live Forward!  present themselves. This includes our "Parenting @ the Speed of Life," "A License to Live" and "Flashing Your Brights - Dare to Care" presentations. E-mail kkad25@kkad25.org for information.

Support Live Forward!  

1,412 THANK YOU NOTE CHALLENGE 



We invite you to support the mission of KEEP KIDS ALIVE DRIVE 25® and help fund Live Forward!   by participating in the 1,412 Thank You Note Challenge for the 2013 KKAD25 Run to Remember.



Our goal? $14,115.00 - $1.00 for each foot above sea level at the summit of Pike's Peak. We need 1,412 donors to generously donate $10.00 or more towards this goal. Donate now @ KKAD25 Donate. 

CHECKS can be sent to: 

KKAD25

12418 C St.

Omaha, NE 68144 

Corporate Sponsors are welcome. Please e-mail kkad25@kkad25.org or call 402-334-1391. If you know of a loved one who has died due to a traffic incident and would like to see them included in our "Run to Remember," please e-mail Tom@kkad25.org or call 402-334-1391



Your generous giving keeps kids living, generates 1,412 "Thank You" notes, and helps families Live Forward!  

America's Trash Talks to Keep Kids Alive

    

    

                             

"America's Trash Talks to 

Keep Kids Alive"

"America's Trash Talks to Keep Kids Alive" is the latest initiative from Keep Kids Alive Drive 25. GEICO is on board as our first national sponsor and the AAA Cornhusker Motor Club in our first state partner - Nebraska. Initiatives are spreading quickly, including:

• Colonial Heights, VA
• Phoenix, AZ
• Lithia, FL
• O'Fallon, IL
• Omaha, NE
• Millbourne, PA
• Oro Valley, AZ
• Peters Township, PA
• Wichita, KS
• Fenton, MO
• Florissant, MO
• Fayetteville, NC

The premise is simple; to get the "Keep Kids Alive" message out on the side of every trash can in America - both curbside and in alleys. Messages include:

 

 

We welcome you to partner – through your neighborhood/homeowners association, local trash hauler, business, school, faith community, or civic organization (or all of these organizations working together).

How?

Through use of Keep Kids Alive Drive 25®, Be Aware! Drive With Care®, No Need To Speed®, and Check Your Speed® decals. The goal is to decal every trash can on every neighborhood street and alleyway in America

Why?

To reduce motor vehicle deaths and injuries. It's that simple - get all citizens involved in sending out one or more of the "Keep Kids Alive" safety messages in order to create safer roadway environments for the benefit of pedestrians and cyclists of all ages, as well as motorists themselves. (The City of Oro Valley, AZ applied these decals to trash cans and saw average speeds plummet to 24.5 mph on residential streets - a 13% decrease.)

What is needed?

Partners - environmental waste companies, insurance companies, local businesses, schools, faith communities, and civic organizations to partner with Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 in implementing this goal in communities nationwide.

Local Trash Hauler in Escondido, CA affixed

Keep Kids Alive Drive 25® 

signs to their trucks, making them rolling billboards inviting all to slow down on residential streets. Papillion Sanitation, a Waste Connections Company, will join in with rolling billboards in Spring 2013

What is the role of partners?

Examples include the following:

• Environmental waste companies that provide trash and recycling bins to municipalities and neighborhoods add one or more of the Keep Kids Alive messages via decals on the side of all trash/recycling bin.
• Insurance companies utilize agents to distribute decals to policyholders. These decals can integrate company logos into decals in order to recognize sponsorship
• Businesses can sponsor decals and distribute through customer service, check out lanes, service counters, as well as through employees. Businesses can be recognized by integrating company logos into decals to recognize sponsorship
• Schools and civic organizations can distribute decals to families and members. Civic organizations can partner as local/regional/national sponsors as well

How can your business, school, civic organization get involved?

Get started today by ordering decals at “America’s Trash Talks”  For more information, contact Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 at 402-334-1391 or kkad25@kkad25.org.

We look forward to partnering with you as "America's Trash Talks to Keep Kids Alive"

The "Will" to Drive to Keep Kids Alive!

  

www.KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org

What was I thinking? 

The "will" to drive safely is critical each time any one of us gets behind the wheel. Will means we actually think about what we are about to do. 

What if...

...every time any one of us gets behind the wheel, our first thoughts are, "I am going to drive safely. I am going to...

...walk around the vehicle to make sure no children are hiding in blind spots

...turn off my cell phone and set it aside until I reach my destination

...buckle up and make sure all passengers are buckled up as well

...observe all posted speed limits, and adjust downward due to presence of children at play, cyclists, road and weather conditions

...create space between my vehicle and others around me, so I have time to react to the driving behaviors of others

...use my blinker to signal all turns and lane changes

...stop - take three to see at all stop signs regardless of whether or not anyone is present - it is my chance to practice making complete stops so I am ready the one time that someone does seem to appear out of nowhere

...observe all traffic signals and traffic signs

...think of the ones I love, the ones who are waiting for me to return home safely.

Ask the questions, "Who do I love" and "who loves me?" May the faces of all the loved ones you picture in your mind give you the "will" to drive to keep kids (of all ages) alive and to make safe driving behaviors a lifetime habit. 

Donate to support our mission at KKAD25 Donate

Your generous giving keeps kids living.

Emergency Educational Engagement Now!

Emergency Educational Engagement Now!

In the wake of news that Traffic Deaths Rose 5% in 2012, now is the moment to take a fresh look at the “3 E’s” of traffic safety.

Typically these “E’s” include:

Engineering – building and maintaining safe roadways

Enforcement – enforcing motor vehicle laws

Education – teaching motorists the skills needed to behave safely behind the wheel – and reinforcing these skills through ongoing education

As a traffic safety education non-profit, Keep Kids Alive Drive 25^® advocates a renewed focus on the 3^rd E – Education. Let’s phrase it this way:

Emergency – After 7 years of reduced deaths on America’s roadways, 2012 shows a 5% increase in deaths – over 1,600 more loved ones died in 2012 than in 2011 – an average of 5 a day. This indeed constitutes an emergency when it comes to traffic safety education.

Education – We need renewed focus on teaching safe driving behaviors. The fact that fatalities and injuries are on the rise is evidence that many of us do not know how to drive safely. We may say that we know how to put aside distractions, follow the speed limit, buckle up, create safe following distance, and observe stop signs and all manner of cautionary signage and signals. However, the data demonstrates that we have not learned to put what we may say we know into action by virtue of our behaviors behind the wheel.

In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do.” If we observe speed limits, stop at stop signs, put aside cell phones, buckle up, and so many other necessary behaviors to keep ourselves and others safe on and along roadways, then we truly do act as the safe drivers we say we know how to be.

Engagement – Make 2013 the year when your community, neighborhood, school, business, civic organization, or faith community makes the commitment to become engaged in education towards safe driving behaviors. Keep Kids Alive Drive 25^® exists to assist and support you in your educational engagement efforts. Learn more about how to begin at KKAD25 – Get Involved. The life you save may be yours or that of someone you love. Call or e-mail today about hosting an educational event in your community – 402-334-1391 or kkad25@kkad25.org.

It's About Kids! It's About Safety!  It's About Caring! It's About Time!®

Safe travels,
Tom Everson
Executive Director
Keep Kids Alive Drive 25^®A Non-Profit "For Action" Organization 501(c)(3)
402-334-1391
12418 C Street
Omaha, NE 68144
www.KeepKidsAliveDrive25.org