By Matt Browning
As a member of the Ellsworth SAFE program, Cadence Halfhill knows just how important it is to wear a seatbelt.
Halfhill was in a scary car crash last year.
“My arm was terribly bloodied and my knee cap was out of place,” Halfhill said. “I rolled four times off of a road into a pasture. Cars couldn’t see my car from the road so I had to crawl up to the road to get help.”
She tore her ACL, which led to total knee reconstruction and had to get 79 stitches.
“Without my seatbelt on, I would have flown out either a window or my windshield and likely have been crushed by my own car,” Halfhill said. “My seatbelt saved my life.”
There are several events Ellsworth’s SAFE program puts on throughout the school year.
“On the first day of school, our Student Council organizes a Block Party for students to mingle with each other and learn about clubs and organizations in our school and community,” Halfhill said. “At this, we have a table for SAFE where we share brochures and other literature regarding how to be a safe driver and passenger. For Halloween, we will pass out candy to our students. Each piece of candy will have some sort of safe driving statistic or fact to encourage our students to be safe. In November, we have each student draw a hand turkey and label each finger with something they are thankful for that they make it home for.”
