GLEN BURNIE, MD – The Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA) today announced that Calvert High School and St. Mary’s High School are the winners of the Making It Click program, a peer-led effort to increase awareness and usage of seat belts among younger drivers and passengers.
The program, which ran from January through May 2018, tasked students with creatively raising awareness about the importance of always buckling up. Between 2012 and 2016, an average of 107 fatalities occurred each year because someone was not properly belted. Participants’ efforts included creating posters, videos, memes, and flyers; signing pledge cards; and sharing their ideas about illustrating seat belt use and highway safety at school and through social media.
Calvert High School in Prince Frederick won the award for the highest overall seat belt usage rate at 99.2 percent. St. Mary’s High School in Annapolis had the largest increase in seat belt use, going from a 61 percent usage rate at the start of the program to a 79.6 percent rate at the end of the program.
“I’m very impressed with the efforts and milestones the two top schools achieved as part of the Making It Click program,” said MDOT MVA Administrator and Governor Larry Hogan’s Highway Safety Representative Christine Nizer. “I’m also proud of all the participating schools for helping to reinforce the lifesaving habit of buckling up, every seat, every time.”
This morning, MDOT MVA Administrator Nizer presented the principals, faculty and student leaders at Calvert High School and at St. Mary’s High School with Making It Click plaques during an awards program, where students had the opportunity to snap selfies in front of a Making It Click celebration banner. Students from the Calvert High Criminal Justice Program and the Students Against Destructive Decisions from St. Mary’s High School led the efforts for their schools.
All schools that participated in the program will receive a Making It Click license plate and 500 ear buds for students through funding from State Farm®.
The 2018 Making It Click schools were:
- Archbishop Spalding High School (Anne Arundel County)
- Calvert High School (Calvert County)
- Center for Applied Technology North (Anne Arundel County)
- Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Prince George’s County)
- Kent Island High School (Queen Anne’s County)
- McDaniel College (Carroll County)
- St. Mary’s High School (Anne Arundel County)
- Washington Academy and High School (Somerset County)
Editor’s Note: Follow students’ creativity on social media via #MakingItClick. Learn more about the MDOT MHSO’s Toward Zero Deaths campaign at towardzerodeathsmd.com, on Facebook @towardzerodeathsmd, on Twitter @tzd_maryland, and on Instagram @twdzerodeaths_md. | 
