New Child Passenger Safety Advocates in NW Lower Michigan

From left to right you see Deputy Marty Makowski of the Benzie County Sheriff's Department, Michelle Stagman of Munson Medical Center Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit (NICU), Captain Anthony Posey of Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department, Nicole Beebe, Debbie Hessem and Michelle Bratschi also of Munson Medical Center's NICU, and Injury Prevention Coordinator Jennifer Ritter of Munson Medical Center Trauma Services, MSU Extension and the Director of North Shore Safe Kids. Me? I'm the one sticking my head out of the cab of Engine 11, courtesy of our hosts: the Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department.

This photo shows six of Michigan's newest Child Passenger Safety (CPS) technicians. They just completed 32 hours (four days) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's certification course that prepared them to educate families on how to protect everyone in the family car from unnecessary injuries and death. Yes, deaths and injuries from something that has the real potential of being easily prevented or mitigated: car crashes.

Jennifer Ritter and myself are the Child Passenger Safety Instructors for North Shore Safe Kids, and it was our privilege to spend this past week meeting these motivated individuals and facilitating their certification. They were advocates for children and traffic/public safety to begin with. Now, they are advocates armed with knowledge that will help them to expand their advocacy influence. You might refer to them as "child seat inspectors," but they really are educators and nationally certified public safety professionals. They join a great group of other CPS technicians here locally and nationwide that have a unique motivation that can only be understood by those with a similar calling. You can seek them out for advice and counsel here in Michigan by contacting michigansafekids.org or nationally at safekids.org .

Just one more thing: These advocate/volunteers are normally only able to do this because their employers have allowed and encouraged them to pursue such a course. The time commitment and expense are not trivial, especially in these tight times. The agencies that sponsor your local Child Passenger Safety Technicians deserve special recognition and thanks. Our North Shore Safe Kids group, for example, enjoys just such support from Grand Traverse County and our Sheriff, GT Metro Fire, the City of Traverse City and our Chiefs (Police and Fire), Benzie County and their Sheriff, Elmwood Township Fire, the State of Michigan and MSU Extension, Leelanau County, Munson Medical Center, Blair Township and their Fire Chief, the Michigan Department of Transportation, The Michigan State Police, The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Interlochen for the Arts, Traverse City Area Public Schools and others. They all see the reason for advocacy that leads to injury prevention.

If you see any of our new graduates around town congratulate them, and then show them your baby (no matter what age your baby happens to be). You might be surprised about what they'll tell you.

Be safe.