Ollie the Otter was on a mission Tuesday – providing informative games and safety tips to children in Carter County.
The Ollie the Otter Foundation, organization by the Tennessee Road Builders Association, iCube of Tennessee Tech and the Tennessee Highway Safety Office, made the trip to Elizabethton to visit third grade students at Valley Forge, Hunter and West Side elementary schools.
Also aiding during the morning and afternoon trips was students and faculty with the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) of Elizabethton. Students led each presentation and even donned the Ollie attire to help spread the message of seat belt safety and booster seats.
“They’ve done a phenomenal job presenting to third graders,” Patricia Henderson, TCAT Elizabethton Student Services Coordinator, said about the trio of students. “We’ve been to Valley Forge Elementary, Hunter Elementary then came here to West Side Elementary. It has been a very exciting and good day and I think we’ve put out a lot of good information about seat belt safety to our third graders, and even to some of our fourth graders in the county.”
Jamie Smith, Hope Carrow and Morgan Jenkins led the presentation at West Side on Tuesday. While Smith and Carrow led the demonstrations, Jenkins donned the Ollie attire to help make an impact on the children. The three students are part of the TCAT nursing program and set to graduate in April.
During their stay at West Side, Ollie, along with Smith and Carrow, led the students in various activities to help raise awareness of seat belts and booster seats.
Ollie the Otter has been a driving impact in providing information to children and parents alike over the past 10 years. During that stretch, the program has reached over 715,000 kids in over 34,000 classrooms of approximately 2,500 schools in nine states. The program also has over 1,700 volunteers that helped spread the message of safety, which is important, according to Julie Brewer, with the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) and Ollie the Otter Program Manager.
“8 out of 10 kids aren’t properly following the guidelines of being in a booster seat,” Brewer said. “That’s from a national study. The law states that a child nine years old and above 4’9 does not need to be in a booster seat.”
The Ollie Otter Booster Seat and Seat Belt Safety Program visits each of the 95 counties in Tennessee with 24 Ollie Otter mascots. Continually staying busy, Brewer said that technicians will be holding “checkpoints” at different stores across the state, including Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us and Babies-R-Us, to check on booster seats and seat belt safety.
Brewer added that one of the shocking discoveries from Tuesday was the amount of children and parents that have received misinformation on the proper age and height of wearing a seat belt and being in a seat.
Henderson and Brewer both added that booster seats are available for families that haven’t had the chance to obtain one yet. Any family in need of a booster seat for their child can either contact TCAT or their school’s principal for more information.
Brewer added that parents that determine their child needs a seat can contact the group at ollie@ollieotter.org to obtain a seat. Individuals can also download the TN Child Passenger Safety app for free on their phone or tablet.