If you’ve signed up for the the End Distracted Driving campaign, then we’ve got an INCREDIBLE new outreach resource for you from our non-profit partners at EndDD.org!

The EndDD.org Preview PDF is a great informational piece that overviews the structure, content, benefits and proven results of the End Distracted Driving Safety Talk.

In 9 graphic-filled pages teachers, principals, administrators and other decision-makers can quickly come up to speed on the basics of this research-driven, high-impact presentation and visualize how this important safety message can be effectively delivered to single classrooms, grade-wide assemblies and even full-school gatherings!

If you’re looking for a powerful tool to help maximize your outreach efforts to local schools and increase your invitations to speak, then download the free EndDD.org Preview PDF. Add it as an attachment to a simple follow up note to your school / group contacts OR print the PDF and send it with a hand-written note for even more impact!

As always, we’re standing by to help you make the most of your local campaign.  Let us know how we can help!

DOWNLOAD – EndDD.org Preview PDF

I’m happy to announce the release of our first quarterly mini-campaign for 2013!

Fight Hunger! is a local community outreach that’s designed to help you build awareness and combat food insecurity in your area.

According to the USDA, nearly 50 million Americans live in food insecure households. According to Feeding America, more than 16.5 million children in the U.S. (1 in 5) are chronically hungry.

Some of our communities are harder hit than others, but no matter where we live, families and children are struggling with having enough to eat.

This campaign is designed to be a simple (but hopefully high impact!) way to explore local hunger issues and help feed families in your area. It’s easy to do — partner with a local food bank, find some local business partners to help with food collection and then deliver the food! And, at it’s most basic, this will only take a few hours spread out over the course of several weeks.

As you know The Injury Board is centered on the idea of doing well by doing good, and as you participate in this effort, there will be some real benefits to you and your firm: You’ll be building or strengthening important relationships. You’ll be enhancing your reputation as a concerned and compassionate leader in your community. You’ll be encouraging your partners and staff and building team spirit.

Most importantly, you’ll be helping others.

In this season where we celebrate struggle and sacrifice and remember that the greatest provisions are freely given and not earned, we think it’s a perfect time to remember and help those who may not be in a position to help themselves.

Join the Fight Hunger! Campaign (registration link at bottom of page)

Join us at Radius of Influence 2013

Blessed Passover and Happy Easter to you all!

Friday, 15 Feb 2013 — Joel Feldman of EndDD.org and current president of PAJ, Scott Cooper, visit The School at Church Farm in Exton, PA to present the first official End Distracted Driving presentation of this year’s Pennsylvania state campaign.

Courtesy of EndDD.org

PAJ Campaign Kick-Off Press Release – WSJ – Marketwatch.com - 13 Feb 2013

Ongoing Campaign – PAJ member attorneys connect with local schools to schedule and deliver End Distracted Driving presentations to students throughout Pennsylvania.

LEARN MORE about this campaign at the PAJ website or on our PAJ Resource Page

Monday, 4 Feb 2013 — MATA holds a press conference at State House in Boston, featuring MATA president, attorney Tim Kelleher, and trial attorneys and EndDD.org founders Joel Feldman and Dianne Anderson (parents of Casey Feldman, who lost her life at 21 to a distracted driver).  Governor Deval L. Patrick declared, End Distracted Driving Day to help commemorate the event.

Julie and Emily Stein, widow and daughter of Howard Stein, Tim Kelleher, President of Mass Academy of Trial Attorneys (MATA), Joel Feldman and Dianne Anderson of EndDD.org at State House, Boston, MA – 4 Feb 2013

End Distracted Driving Day Proclamation by Gov. Deval L. Patrick - Feb 4, 2013
Press Coverage of State House Event – Ch 22, Boston – Feb 4, 2013
Press Coverage – Metro.US – Feb 4, 2013

Also on Monday, EndDD.org releases the powerful documentary-style short video, Just A Few Seconds…, the true story of the tragic consequences of distracted driving in the lives of two young women – the grieving daughter  (Emily Stein, above) of a distracted driving victim and the 17 year old high school honors student who killed him.

Tuesday, 5 Feb 2013 — Joel Feldman and Dianne Anderson join Emily Stein, Tim Kelleher and local School Superintendent Roy Belson at Medford High School in Medford, MA to present the first official End Distracted Driving presentation of this year’s campaign.

Emily Stein speaks to students at Medford High School – Source: MPS

Student Lucas Campos and Superintendent Roy Bilson demonstrate dangers of distracted driving – Source: MPS

Medford High School Event – Medford Public Schools  – 5 Feb 2013
Press Coverage – Medford.Patch.com – Medford, MA – 30 Jan 2013
Press Coverage – WickedLocal.com – Medford, MA – 5 Feb 2013

Wednesday, 6 Feb 2013 – MATA President Tim Kelleher provides an overview of the dangers of distracted driving, the EndDD.org campaign and Mass Academy’s role in providing it’s attorney members as volunteer speakers for high school audiences throughout Massachusetts.

Feature Interview with Tim Kelleher – Fox 25 – Boston – 6 Feb 2013

Ongoing Campaign – MATA member attorneys connect with local schools to schedule and deliver End Distracted Driving presentations to students throughout Massachusetts.

Just a Few Seconds… reveals the tragic consequences of distracted driving in the lives of two young women – the grieving daughter of a distracted driving victim and the 17 year old high school honors student who killed him.

To mark the one year anniversary of the End Distracted Driving campaign and the launch of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Lawyer’s state-wide efforts, the video premiered on Monday, February 4, 2013 at a press event at the Massachusetts State House building.

Members of The Injury Board, Local Publishers of The Legal Examiner, Volunteer Speakers with 60forSafety.org and state trial lawyer association Campaign Partners are being given special access to this video for local promotion and will receive a link to the full video shortly after the premiere in Boston.

If you’re a registered speaker and interested in sharing more information about this new video and your own local efforts to help End Distracted Driving, we’re excited to make the following materials available to you:

For Attorneys / Firms –

Draft Press Release (Firm Version)
Facts about Distracted Driving
History of the Campaign
Other Media Materials

For Associations –

Draft Press Release (Association Version)
Facts about Distracted Driving
History of the Campaign
Other Media Materials

Please use these materials to update your area media and contacts about your local campaign.

Tuesday, 15 Jan 2013 — NYSTLA trains a pilot group of attorney speakers at their office in Manhattan.  These speakers will be some of the first presenters in the New York State campaign.

Dan Levin, David Roth, Joe Monoco, Vic DAmmora, Mike Carner (in back), Mike Jaffe, Joel Feldman of EndDD.org, Eric Turkewitz (in back) Mike Greenspan, Ken Hoefer, Frank Longo, Joe Monoco’s nephew, James Pipczynski

Week of 11 Feb 2013 — NYSTLA member Joshua Stein delivers talk to Great Neck North High School.

Saturday, 16 Feb 2013 — InjuryBoard Member and 60forSafety Speaker, Pamela Nichols of O’Connell and Aronowitz in Albany NY and Joel Feldman, founder of EndDD.org are featured in a powerful Albany Times Union story about Kate McGuire, the subject of the short video, Just A Few Seconds…

Press Coverage — Albany Times Union — Albany, NY — 16 Feb 2013

Week of 18 Feb 2013 — NYSTLA member Josh Stein delivers talk to Roslyn High School in Rosyln Heights.

Week of 4 Mar 2013 — NYSTLA members Michael Carner, Scott Wolinetz and Kevin Grennan deliver talk to 350+ students at Amityville High School.  NYSTLA and InjuryBoard members Hersch Gelber and Stephanie Gelber of Gelber and O’Connell pioneer taking the End Distracted Driving talk to adult audiences with a presentation to the Western New York Two Cylinder Club in Alexander.   Injury Board corporate member John Bair of Milestone Consulting presents at Buffalo Seminary.

Week of 18 Mar 2013 — NYSTLA member Robert Greenstein delivers talk to 200+ students and parents at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY.   Josh Stein and David Roth deliver talk to 200+ at Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park.  Injury Board member Kelly Mikullitz delivers talk to Guilderland High School Drivers Ed class.

Robert Greenstein delivers safety talk at Horace Greeley High School

Press Coverage – Chappaqua Daily Voice – Chappaqua, NY – 19 Mar 2013
Press Coverage – Chappaqua Daily Voice – Chappaqua, NY — 21 Mar 2013

LEARN MORE about this campaign at the NYSTLA resource page

After reaching more than 40,000 high school students with our safety message this Spring, we’ve developed strategic relationships with a handful of state TLAs to pilot programs that emphasize local efforts to End Distracted Driving.

Joel Feldman (EndDD.org), Gov. Lincoln Chafee, Anthony Leone (RIAJ)

Our first partnership is with Rhode Island Association for Justice (RIAJ) where we have worked with local leaders Anthony Leone (RIAJ president, 2012-2013) and Lisa St. Pierre (RIAJ Executive Director) to help carry out their vision of reaching every high school in the state with this important safety message!  RIAJ has done an incredible job of organizing and promoting this campaign including a campaign kick-off press event (see above) that featured RI Governor Lincoln Chafee, EndDD.org founder Joel Feldman and RIAJ President Anthony Leone.

Learn more about the RIAJ campaign

Learn more about a custom campaign in your area

Over the last few weeks, members of The Injury Board in Buffalo NY and Hallifax NS have worked with 60forSafety.org and KidsAndCars.org to order their Blindzone Kit, receive some basic training and then hit the ground running!

Check out 60 for Safety speakers Tim O’Connell and Herschel Gelber, injury attorneys at Gelber O’Connell in Buffalo, New York. Along with law partner and speaker Stephanie Gelber, they coordinated the following demonstration on WKBW Channel 7.

What an incredible preview of the campaign to come!

Just a few weeks later, following a terrible tragedy in Canada, volunteer 60 for Safety speaker John McKiggan of Arnold Pizzo McKiggan in Halifax, Nova Scotia was contacted by the local press to discuss the dangers of backovers and its impact in Canada. John had been working with 60 for Safety and KidsAndCars.org for more than a year to launch KidsAndCars.org/Canada and was able to share our safety message with The Globe and Mail and Global Toronto before eventually being asked for an interview on CBC, Canada’s national news broadcast.

Congratulations and thanks to these great speakers for their leadership and commitment to spread this important safety message!

In just the first weeks of the campaign, we’ve already seen:

• Presentations to more than 200 school groups!
• Audiences of more than 40,000 students reached with this powerful message!

And we’re just getting started!

If you’re one of the nearly 100 speakers who have already presented to a local school(s) in your area, we want to offer a sincere and special thanks! Without you, we would still be struggling to share this information one classroom at a time. With you, tens of thousands have already heard, and we’re positioned for even more success in the months to come!

If you’re one of the more than 750 speakers who have registered as a volunteer speaker but haven’t had the chance to give a talk, yet — we’ve got great news! There’s never been a better time to get started!

With schools out on Summer Break across North America, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to record the successes of our speakers and help tell their story. You’ll see our work here on the 60 for Safety website, on Facebook and on our Safety Talks page — where every confirmed talk is registered, including information about the speaker, their firm, and a link back to their site.

We’ve also updated our Speaker Resource page to make it even more streamlined and user-friendly. Also, be sure to check out our new-and-improved Outreach Materials which tell the story of how this campaign has already reached more than 40,000 students, making it even easier for schools, civic groups and more to say “Yes!” to your offer to present.

Whether you’ve already given a talk or have been waiting for the right time to get started, this Summer is a great time to get in touch with local schools and other groups in your area. We’re already hearing reports from speakers across the country who are connecting and re-connecting with schools to set up talks for this Fall.

Get going with just one click!

We can’t wait to celebrate your success!

856 registered speakers (since January 1)
50 states
4 Canadian provinces
75 confirmed speakers (have at least one confirmed talk)
175 confirmed talks (that we have been made aware of)
35,000+ confirmed audience

Amazing.

Some thoughts on these numbers…

While we had hoped more of those who expressed interested initially (856 registered speakers) followed through, what a HUGE audience was reached (35K+) by such a small number of actual speakers (approx 75). That means that the median audience was close to 500 kids! Many speakers spoke to smaller classes but some spoke to literally thousands in just the first few weeks of this campaign that just launched in April.

Now think about this…

If each of the 856 registered speakers gave a talk using that same speaker:audience ratio, then we would be at 400,000 students reached! Think about that — with just the speakers we have now reaching out to the same average audience size that we’ve already reached… close to half a million kids reached with this important safety message. Then, multiply that through by the number of people those kids reach (our ask is to take this info home to parents, siblings, friends, etc.) and the numbers really get huge!

And this was just in the first month of the campaign!

It goes to prove what we say at The Injury Board — we really are “better together.”

One (amazing) chapter down.

Will you be a part of the next?