NewsFaculty/StaffCounseling
Speaker to focus on teen driving
Aug 31, 2009 1:31 PM
By Tannika King - Faculty
Lauren Winborne, co-founder of the non-profit organization It Won’t Happen To Me, will visit Darlington Oct. 25-26 to speak to parents and students on the topic of teen driving. The parent program, which is open to all parents in the Rome/Floyd County community, will be Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in Morris Chapel. Darlington students will hear from Winborne during assembly on Oct. 26.
It Won’t Happen To Me was founded four years ago by Winborne and former police officer Bill Richardson with the specific goal of reducing teen driving fatalities through education. Richardson had served for 25 years as a police officer in Gwinnett County (Ga.), during which time all too often witnessed the tragedy of teenage driving fatalities. Meanwhile, Winborne was researching teen driving and interviewing parents of teens who had died in car crashes. They crossed paths and soon discovered that they shared the same vision – to reduce the No. 1 cause of teen deaths in the United States.
“Because teen driving fatalities are usually caused by inexperience and unsafe driving habits, It Won’t Happen To Me seeks to educate teens and their parents,” said Jill Pate, director of personal counseling. “Some of their most effective presentations have been after school or in the evenings when parents join the students because many of the lessons in these presentations are geared toward how parents can help their teenagers become safer drivers.”
What began as a modest local venture is now becoming a national initiative. Since 2005, Winborne and Richardson have spoken to more than 50,000 teens and parents throughout the Southeast and in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Their DVD, a key component of the presentation, has been viewed by more than 70,000 students and parents in Colorado and Wyoming, where it has also been featured on the news. Their presentation is also supplemented by a powerful book, which features teens from around the country who have lost their lives in car accidents.
“The book is designed to reach students of all socio-economic groups, races and religions. Any teenager in the country is able to pick up this book and find someone who has been killed in a car crash who looks like a friend or themselves,” Richardson said. “In interviewing these families and dealing with the tragedies they’ve dealt with, they appreciate knowing that we are helping keep the memory of their child alive. Further, parents feel that by allowing us to share their stories and the mistakes their teen made, other families may not have to go through what they have gone through.”
For more information, please visit www.itwonthappentome.org.
It Won’t Happen To Me was founded four years ago by Winborne and former police officer Bill Richardson with the specific goal of reducing teen driving fatalities through education. Richardson had served for 25 years as a police officer in Gwinnett County (Ga.), during which time all too often witnessed the tragedy of teenage driving fatalities. Meanwhile, Winborne was researching teen driving and interviewing parents of teens who had died in car crashes. They crossed paths and soon discovered that they shared the same vision – to reduce the No. 1 cause of teen deaths in the United States.
“Because teen driving fatalities are usually caused by inexperience and unsafe driving habits, It Won’t Happen To Me seeks to educate teens and their parents,” said Jill Pate, director of personal counseling. “Some of their most effective presentations have been after school or in the evenings when parents join the students because many of the lessons in these presentations are geared toward how parents can help their teenagers become safer drivers.”
What began as a modest local venture is now becoming a national initiative. Since 2005, Winborne and Richardson have spoken to more than 50,000 teens and parents throughout the Southeast and in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Their DVD, a key component of the presentation, has been viewed by more than 70,000 students and parents in Colorado and Wyoming, where it has also been featured on the news. Their presentation is also supplemented by a powerful book, which features teens from around the country who have lost their lives in car accidents.
“The book is designed to reach students of all socio-economic groups, races and religions. Any teenager in the country is able to pick up this book and find someone who has been killed in a car crash who looks like a friend or themselves,” Richardson said. “In interviewing these families and dealing with the tragedies they’ve dealt with, they appreciate knowing that we are helping keep the memory of their child alive. Further, parents feel that by allowing us to share their stories and the mistakes their teen made, other families may not have to go through what they have gone through.”
For more information, please visit www.itwonthappentome.org.
