FCCLA’s End The Streak Project teaches CHS students

CHILDRESS – Childress High School (CHS) students Kara Palomo, Darren Pratt and Meg Ridens hope to save lives with their FCCLA project End The Streak they are doing with TxDOT.“This is a really impactful subject to us because of the recent deaths in Wellington and all around us,” Palomo said. “It’s very close to the heart. We don’t want it to have to happen here for our students to learn how dangerous driving can be.”

So on Monday, Nov. 7, they teamed up with TxDOT, Texas DPS, Childress Fire Department, Childress Police Department, Childress Sheriff’s Office, Childress EMS and K3 Towing. They turned the CHS parking lot into a stage to provide traffic safety stations for students to go through.

“Hopefully this event will teach our young people about how to be safe and drive smart,” TxDOT Traffic Safety Specialist Nicole Tyler said. “This generation we’re teaching today is going to be the generation that changes what is happening on our roadways.”

Tyler said Palomo, Pratt and Ridens chose a fitting day to promote their public advocacy project. The last deathless day on Texas roads was 22 years ago on Nov. 7, 2000. Close to 75,000 people have died on the road since that time, which is more than double the amount of people in the 13 counties she represents.

Ridens said they reached out to their FCCLA sponsors and TxDOT about doing this project, and then they ran with it. “We have a lot of good organizations we get to work with, and we have a lot of support from our two teachers (Amy Detwiler and Jeffrey Collins),” Pratt added.

At the event, the End The Streak project stations consisted of drunk goggles and field sobriety tests, a rollover simulator and distracted driving activities and pedal carts. K3 Towing taught the Move Over Slow Down law, and Childress EMS talked about the correlation of speed to the outcomes and showed what happens in a crash when the passenger has their feet on the dashboard.

“We hope we can at least give them a little bit more information on what is dangerous and what they should avoid doing, so they can keep themselves and their friends and family safe,” Pratt said.

“Saving a single person with this entire program would be more than worth it,” Pratt added said. But they hope it does more than that. “Saving countless lives is the goal,” Ridens said.

They will take their FCCLA project End The Streak to the district meet in February.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part 1 of a 2-part series.