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CRAASH and Me

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Hi everyone! My name is Kathryn, I’m the marketing manager at Phil Richard Insurance. I write the content posted on this blog, our Facebook, and our Twitter account. As you may know, our office is currently working on a project with the DECA students at Peabody High School to bring more awareness to the dangers of texting and driving. Phil and I have been working diligently for a year now and are close to seeing our biggest program goal come to fruition. It has proven to be both a rewarding and challenging experience and we hope it has the same impact on you that it has had on us. I have personally committed to never text and drive again, and while that might be hard to believe, I really mean it.  I beg you to stop texting and driving and to encourage everyone you know to do the same. As our program slogan asks, what’s more important, your text or your life? The following post is a personal anecdote on my relationship with texting and driving. I hope it makes you think twice before sending a text while driving. If it does, please share it with everyone and anyone you can.

I was on a trip to get water when he came in the office. I’m not sure whether I was on my way to or from the break room, but the real point here is that I avoided eye contact and quickly shuffled back to my well hidden cubicle. I couldn’t remember his name but I knew we went to high school together, and I wasn’t really in the mood for an awkward Peabody High reunion.

After he left I asked my coworker Kathy who he was. “Gary Gordon,” she said. “I think he’s your age.”

“He is,” I replied.  “We went to high school together.” As I wheeled my chair back up to my desk I thought, thank God I didn’t say hi, he definitely wouldn’t remember me.  But as soon as Kathy said his name I remembered him: always smiling, a little on the wild side, and big blue beautiful eyes.

As the day went on, I practically beat myself up over not saying hello. Not because of who Gary was, but because of the situation itself. As the marketing manager, I should be bounding around saying hi to everyone, and even if it feels a little awkward, I should get used to it. Peabody might be a city, but it frequently feels like a small town. I should be constantly looking for ways to make new connections, reconnect with old contacts, and identify opportunities for business ties within the community. After a little reflection and a locker room-esque self-pep talk, I vowed to greet Gary the next time he came in.

A few months later, the previous incident long forgotten, I logged into Facebook at work, guilty as charged. Every once in a while it’s nice to take a break, peruse the Internet, clear your brain, and then get back at it. That’s not exactly how it went this time. Immediately I noticed that a lot of people on my news feed had similar statuses: “praying for you Gug,” “pull through Gary,” basically lots of heart symbols in the status bar of anyone who graduated in 06. After a few minutes of stalking I could tell there had been some kind of accident, and that Gary Gordon was hurt.  “Shit,” I thought to myself, remembering when he came into the office. “He’s one of our clients.”

I dug deeper, I texted a friend who always knew the latest gossip, I started Googling. Then I found an article about a 24 year old from Peabody who’d crashed on the Zakim Bridge. At the same time I got a reply to my text, and it was not good. Gary was indeed hurt. Badly. My original “shit” turned into a much stronger explicative and a lot more concern.

I had to tell Phil. I poked my head around the door to his office,

Me: “Uhh Phil?”

Phil: “Yeah?”

Me: “Do you know Gary Gordon? I think we write his insurance.”

Phil, without turning his head: “Junior or Senior?”

Me, nervously: “Uhh, both technically. But I think the one my age was in a really bad car accident.”

Phil immediately began to make some phone calls and from there it’s really all a blur. We found out later that Gary was coming home from Boston when he crashed his F-150 on the Zakim Bridge, slamming his head through the passenger window and into a pole. He was not wearing a seat belt and he was texting and driving.

Mid-summer, a few months after Gary’s accident, I am sitting in our conference room with ten or so other people, all of whom are connected to Peabody and all of whom will play a role in the effort to end texting and driving accidents. Phil has called this meeting. He has spoken with Gary’s father, he has seen their family’s struggle, and he has had enough. Our office is on a mission to ending distracted driving. We hosted Arbella’s Distractology 101, a texting and driving simulator, and we took students to In Control Crash Prevention training, yet it isn’t enough. We want to create something in Peabody that will last: a by-students for-students movement, a city-wide awareness campaign, and an organization that will save lives. Deanne Healey from the Peabody Chamber suggests using the DECA students from Peabody High for help; Peabody CRAASH is born.

CRAASH stands for Citizens Raising Awareness for Accidents, Safety, and Hazards. Every Friday morning, Phil, Lenny Brand, the student-presidents of Peabody’s DECA program, and I meet to discuss our plan to end distracted driving. The students are completely engrossed in this effort, so much so that they are taking it on as their project and are bringing it to DECA competitions throughout the year. The ideas they have come up with so far are inspirational and full of hope. The presidents, Shantel and Chris, are so vibrant and encouraging in their dedication to this cause. Driving distracted is a real problem in our community today. Luckily, the DECA students at Peabody High are creating a dynamic campaign to end this devastation. A change is coming.

You’ll read about this change in the results of the survey we are conducting to find out the truth about distracted driving in Peabody. You’ll hear about it during the assembly we are hosting to talk about the realities of distracted driving. You’ll see it in February 2013 when every single Peabody High student wears a t-shirt branded with a message to stop texting and driving.

Most importantly, you’ll feel it. You will feel a change after these two students achieve their goal and fewer people are involved in distracted driving accidents. You’ll feel it when the roads are safer. You’ll feel it when you make the decision to put your phone down. You’ll feel it when you make the decision to never text and drive again.

I will probably never get the chance to fulfill my self-promise of saying hi to Gary in the office.  If I were able to ask Gary if he remembers me now, he’d have to raise an eyebrow for yes, blink twice for no. He can’t talk yet; he may never talk again. Just imagine if he could actually say it out loud.  Imagine if he couldn’t remember me because I was a loser in high school, not because his brain has been permanently damaged. I barely know Gary, but after this past year, I’d do anything to hear him say he doesn’t remember me.

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Peabody CRAASH

For more information on Gary’s accident, please visit http://gugstew.wordpress.com/about-2/ . To learn more about Peabody CRAASH, please visit www.facebook.com/PeabodyCRAASH . To reach Kathryn or to make a donation to Peabody CRAASH, please call 978-774-4338 x 118 or email Kathryn@philrichardinsurance.com .



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