Rockport High School would like to gratefully acknowledge Boston MedFlight, the Rockport Police Department, the Rockport Fire Department, the Rockport Ambulance Service, Beauport Ambulance Service, Greeley Funeral Home, and the Rockport High School Peer Leaders for their assistance in presenting the Boston MedFlight Safe Teens program to our high school students on Monday, April 14, 2014.

The Boston SafeTeens Program is an outreach effort by Boston MedFlight designed to promote teen safety and good decision making skills.  The program includes a dramatic reenactment of a fatal car crash, with community emergency responders and Boston MedFlight personnel.  The program illustrates the severe consequences of distracted driving which includes alcohol, texting, too many people in the car, and other behaviors that create a lack of awareness for the driver.  The reenactment will allow students to experience the impact a serious car crash can have on a community.  Boston MedFlight has designed the program so that communities may offer a preventive education program to students.  The Safe Teens Program incorporates the use of a Boston MedFlight helicopter as an emergency responder in the mock scenario.

We are especially grateful to Mary Arredondo, Jennifer Lewis, and Ryan Mueller of Boston MedFLight.  Ryan, a Rockport native, shared his experiences with the students including a recent call that involved the death of a New Hampshire teenager.  We also want to thank Chief Tom McCarthy, Sergeant Tim Fithsen, and Officer Philip Wesley of the Rockport Police, Chief Jim Doyle and Assistant Chief Kirk Keating of the Rockport Fire Department, and Amy Rose and Amanda Mattson our Rockport High School Peer Leader Advisors

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Rockport Rotary Club for their generous financial support of this and many other programs designed to make our community safer, stronger, and more aware.