For the second time in three years, Lenape Regional High School District students created an ambitious and innovative distracted driving campaign and drove home as champions from the third Annual “U Got Brains Champion Schools Program.”
The district won a driving simulator and a $10,000 grant, which the district will use to help fund post graduation events at each of the four Lenape District schools giving students a safe place to celebrate. According to John Donaldson, LRHSD director of Television Services, the nine Lenape District students who spearheaded the Heads Up, Eyes Forward! campaign were elated and a bit exhausted driving home on Friday evening, June 7.
It was the culmination of an intense campaign of long days, evenings and weekends that began last summer and ended with a “sprint” over the past five months beginning in January.
Highlights of Lenape Regional’s winning campaign included a partnership with the N.J. Department of Transportation spearheaded by Matt McGrorty, whose persistence resulted in a visit to Lenape High School from NJDOT Executive Director of Transportation Systems Management Dennis Motiani and the Heads Up, Eyes Forward! message posted on 160 dynamic message signs including the Garden State Parkway, the Turnpike and AC Expressway. Heads Up, Eyes Forward! hinged on an extensive social media campaign complemented by partnerships with organizations like NJDOT, local law enforcement and area businesses, highlighted by:
A partnership with Rizzieri Aveda School, A Just Drive! T-shirt sale in partnership with junior Alyssa Lesher, with all proceeds benefiting Cooper University Hospital Trauma ICU.
Shawnee High School senior Gabriella Flamini was prolific in getting the message out via social media, including the YouTube postings with makeup tips from Rizzieri. The Lenape Regional District was among only six statewide to enter the competition every year since its inception in 2011. In 2011, the contest’s first year, the LRHSD team was awarded one of two grand prizes for their entry, Stay Alive! Don’t Text and Drive.
