Two grade 11 students from Morrin School have been selected to serve as Youth Ambassadors for a new national teen driver safety campaign.
Brittany Cawiezel and Kyle Montgomery, founding members of the Morrin School Students Against Drinking & Driving (SADD) Chapter, will be heading to Oakville, Ontario from May 9th until the 12th, acting as representatives for Alberta to meet up and work alongside fellow ambassadors to help develop the new campaign.
“Getting the email was a pretty good moment,” said Cawiezel. “We didn’t really think that we’d get picked to go, out of all of Alberta.”
Selected through a competitive process, the students demonstrated a commitment to the cause with a keen eye for creating change amongst their peers.
“We just thought it would be a really good experience if we got picked, and to go see if we could make a difference,” said Montgomery. “Once we started looking into it, they only picked about six kids from across Canada and two from our small school. It was pretty amazing.”
Grade 11 students from Morrin School, Brittany Cawiezel and Kyle Montgomery, have been selected to serve as Youth Ambassadors for a new national teen driver safety campaign. They will be heading to Oakville, Ontario this May to act as representatives for Alberta.
Following the workshop, the students will be attending the Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving (CYAID) Conference, hosted by the Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving group.
The project is being spearheaded by Parachute and State Farm who have joined forces to address the primary cause of death for young Canadians – motor vehicle crashes.
Despite progress due mainly to graduated driver licensing, Canadian teens ages 16 to 19 remain at a higher risk of death per kilometre than any other age group.
Approximately 13 per cent of licensed drivers in Canada are between the ages of 16 to 24 years old, yet 24 per cent of fatalities and 26 per cent of serious injuries on the road tend to be attributed to this young age group.
“The main goal of the campaign is to bring awareness to teen driving hazards,” said Montgomery.
“It should be good, it’s a once in a lifetime experience for sure.”
