Lori Eichelberger, left, helped students Genevieve Twigg, Kara Kovalovich, and Nicole Pavlik, earn the Best Poster award for Newsome High School that took First Place in the poster creation portion of the recent Battle of the Belts. Geico Insurance, this year’s business sponsor, awarded the school $350 at a ceremony at Lennard High School earlier this month. Other schools in the coverage area of this newspaper also received awards in five different categories. Newsome’s School Resource Deputy Michael Alonso was also active in the project which is an annual seat-belt-safety event put on by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Riverview High School was the proud winner of the Highest Compliance rate in the annual Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office “Battle of the Belts.”
School principal Robert Heilmann credits student government advisor Laura Hike and School Resource Deputy Tommy Shannon with motivating the students to win the award.
Seat belts are only good if they’re used, and getting students to buckle up is the whole point of the annual event.
This was the first year Riverview had the highest compliance number in the county. “We’ve always been in the highest four or five (schools), but this was the first year the numbers came up on top,” Heilmann said.
For receiving the title, Riverview received $700 from Geico Insurance, this year’s business sponsor of the event.
The money will be spent for student incentives.
“It isn’t earmarked for a particular use, which gives us the chance to offer small rewards, like maybe a gift certificate for McDonalds, or to help a student with a need, like maybe money for someone who can’t otherwise attend the prom,” Heilmann said.
Each year, the sheriff’s office and the Hillsborough County School District partner in an effort to get students to buckle up.
This is an effort to get teenage drivers and passengers to wear seat belts.
The sheriff’s Community Outreach Division coordinated the awareness and safety programs in 26 county high schools which also included random seat belt checks by deputies at all the participating schools.
“Seat belt use saves lives,” said Tina Appoloney, senior secretary of the School Resource Section of the Community Outreach Division of the sheriff’s office. “Geico Insurance was this year’s campaign sponsor.”
Geico provided $5,000 to be divided among schools winning in five categories including highest percentage of seat belt use; most improved percentage of seat belt use; best overall campaign; best public service announcement and best poster.
The sheriff’s website states that “the Battle of the Belts makes a difference because teenagers are the worst group of drivers and passengers when it comes to wearing seat belts. And the leading cause of death among teenagers is motor vehicle crashes and teens have the highest fatality rate than any other age group.”
The annual seat belt awareness program and competition began in 2006 after 16-year-old Katie Marchetti died following an automobile accident.
“Her parents started the Katie Marchetti Memorial Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit organization that seeks to bring hope and cause other teens to fasten their seat belts,” Appoloney said.
The foundation’s history and purpose, along with Katie’s story, can be viewed at http://www.katiesstory.com.
Other schools in the coverage area of this newspaper also did well in the recent competition especially Lennard in Ruskin, that came away with three awards.
Lennard took First Place in the Overall Campaign category and in the Best Public Service Announcement category; and took a 2nd Place for Best Poster.
“The work and effort that our Student Government and Ms.Wasylkiw put into this campaign was outstanding. This is a very worthy campaign and issue for our students and community,” said Lennard’s principal, Craig Horstman.
For its hard work, Lennard received $1,000 for the Best Overall Campaign; $500 for the Best PSA; and $200 for its work on its poster; a total of $1,700, said student government sponsoring teacher Christine Wasylkiw.
The link to the award-winning public service announcement is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfCZfRTyaYo&list=PLF69F2163E5500D19&index=28.
Other schools in the area also did well.
Spoto took a 2nd Place in Best Public Service Announcement, and 3rd in Overall; East Bay took a second (to Riverview) in Most Compliance; Brandon was Most Improved; and Newsome at FishHawk took First Place in the Poster portion of the competition.
To find out more about the competition and watch some videos made at the different schools, visit the sheriff’s office website at http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/Articles/Articles/Battle-of-the-Belts.aspx.
