Monroe, LA (November 6, 2012) – State Farm is honoring Neville High as one of 452 schools across the U.S. and Canada that were key supporters of the Celebrate My Drive Teen Safe Driving initiative in September.
Neville High student representatives will be presented with the $2,500 grant at State Farm’s agency field office at 1900 North 18th St, Ste 802, on November 8, at 1pm.
Across North America on Sept. 15, high school officials, safety advocates, local law enforcement, and government leaders joined with more than 1,400 State Farm agents and tens of thousands of teens and their parents at over 400 communities, large and small, for a celebration of this year’s class of new teen drivers. The Monroe area event took place at Pecanland Mall.
With Celebrate My Drive, State Farm is taking a different approach to teen driving safety by sharing positive driving habits and experiences rather than some of the more traditional approaches intended to scare new drivers, and which may not have a lasting impact.
State Farm spokesman, Gary Stephenson, says one key way for parents to positively influence teen drivers is to engage their children in observations about traffic and driver behavior they see while they are preteens and early teens. Stephenson says, “Don’t waste all that drive time with your young passengers always plugged in to iPods and video games. Use some of that drive time to ask them about situations you are seeing on trips around town. Ask if this or that was ‘safe’ or not, and why. Engage them in the issue and help them start to become aware of these things at an early age.”
State Farm Agency Field Executive, Marcia Charton, stated, “We congratulate Neville High School and everyone who came together in September to help rally communities around new drivers. Sharing positive experiences and helping to keep teens safe as they explore the road ahead is important in building stronger communities, and on so many levels.”
For more information and a complete list of all grant winners, go to www.celebratemydrive.com.
Gary Stephenson, State Farm Public Affairs, (501) 350-4440
State Farm and its affiliates are the largest provider of car insurance in the U.S. and is a leading insurer in Canada. In addition to providing auto insurance quotes, their 17,800 agents and more than 65,000 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts – more than 79 million auto, home, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and nearly 2 million bank accounts. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats and motorcycles, is also available. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 43 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit http://www.statefarm.com or in Canada http://www.statefarm.ca.
