For Immediate Release
February 9, 2010
Contact: Julie Brewer
931-372-6383
www.seatbeltvolunteer.org

Ollie Otter Teams Up With ETSU Volunteers

Johnson City--Ollie the Otter, the Booster Seat and Seatbelt Safety Mascot, was recently invited to attend West View School. Sam Liska, Will Farmer, student volunteers with East Tennessee State University brought the mascot along to aid in the effort to increase awareness in their community about the importance of using booster seats and seatbelts.

Ollie Otter helps communicate to children and their families that Tennessee state law requires the use of a booster seat until a child is 4-feet-9 inches tall or 9 years old. An orange and white construction site barrel, representing Ollie’s home, is on display to teach the children and their parents the importance of roadway safety near construction work zones.

Betsy Preston with ETSU and Melissa Roberson with TTU helped the volunteers at this event. Sam and Will were the first ETSU student volunteers to participate in the state-wide program. They look forward to presenting at other schools and involving more ETSU students.

The statewide education program is sponsored by the Tennessee Transportation Development Foundation (TTDF) – a non-profit group established by the Tennessee Road Builders Association – and the TRBA Ladies Auxiliary.

 “Our goal is to try to educate children through the Ollie Otter program about Tennessee’s child restraint law,” said Carol Coleman, chairperson of the TTDF. “Hopefully, children will encourage their caregivers, or whoever is driving them around, to make better safety decisions.”

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.

During its first year the Ollie Otter program was able to make at least one school visit in all of Tennessee’s 95 counties. The program is implemented by a network of statewide volunteers who work through Tennessee Tech University BusinessMedia Center in Cookeville to coordinate the elementary school presentations. "The unprecedented educational safety campaign is under consideration for replication in other states" said Julie Brewer, manager with TTU BusinessMedia Center.

“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 Julie Brewer, program coordinator with the TTU BusinessMedia Center. “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 caregivers about seatbelt safety.

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