A group of students at Newbern Grammar School assist Ollie the Otter in pepping up the crowd of nearly 200 during a recent presentation to promote the use of booster seats and seatbelts.

Students at Newbern Grammar School recently received a visit from a very special guest. Ollie Otter, Tennessee's booster seat and seatbelt safety mascot, visited the school to promote the use of booster seats, encourage students to wear their seatbelts and to raise awareness of roadway construction-site safety. Ollie's message to the students was "You 'OTTER' buckle up!"

Ollie was joined by several volunteers from the Tennessee Technology Center at Newbern to educate the students about the importance of booster seat and seatbelt usage.

"TTCN considers this a wonderful opportunity to help children become more aware about the responsibility to buckle up or sit in a booster seat," said Mary Jane Chapman, Technology Foundations Instructor. "Our students have been really excited about this community-service project. I have had no problems finding volunteers."

A group of students at Newbern Grammar volunteer to let Ollie and Lt. Smith determine if they are tall enough to leave their booster seats behind. [Click to enlarge]

Michele Wright, who works as the Project Coordinator for the West Tennessee Ollie Otter campaign, also assisted Ollie during the 20-minute presentation to the school's kindergarten through first-grade students. Also on hand was safety education officer Lt. Zane Smith from the Tennessee Highway Safety Patrol and Christie Henson from Ford Construction in association with the Tennessee Road Builders Association.

The program communicates 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, was displayed to teach the children the importance of roadway safety near construction work zones.

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. The educational safety campaign was launched in 2007 and is implemented by a network of statewide volunteers who work through the Tennessee Tech University Business Media Center in Cookeville to coordinate the presentations.

TTCN students will spend the next week traveling to four additional local schools including Halls Elementary School in Lauderdale County, Lara Kendall Elementary School in Lake County, Hillcrest Elementary School in Obion County and Trenton Elementary School in Gibson County.

"We were very glad to have this program here today," said A.P. Beardsley, Newbern Grammar principal. "The students responded well to the presentation and hopefully took away some valuable lessons about buckling their seat belts and sitting in booster seats."

"We like Ollie and want him come back soon," said Ethan Burns, a kindergarten student at Newbern Grammar. "If he does come back, I hope it's sooner than later."

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