Bank of America And Partner A Child Foundation Team Up Volunteers To Help Ahwatukee Teens

Oct. 3, 2010 - PRLog -- Bank of America volunteers and Partner A Child Foundation are teaming up to truthfully answer these questions and more through parent workshops held in the Ahwatukee area.

This foundation along with Bank of America volunteers want to get our children home safe and avoid any more teen deaths on the road in our community. Statistics show teenage drivers are four times more likely to experience a vehicle collision than adults are. Twenty-three percent of teenage drivers in fatal car wrecks possessed a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08.

You may have read or heard about an Ahwatukee teenager by the name of  "Josh Bornstein" who spent most of the evening drinking at a party, then drove a friend home. On his way back to the party, Josh lost control of his vehicle on Ray Road, crashed into a wall and died as his car burned. He had a blood alcohol level of .17.  

Another Ahwatukee senior from Mountain Pointe High School named "C.J. Ploog", left his prom, changed clothes, and then went to a party. Upon returning from the party he lost control of his car and crashed on 48th street killing himself weeks before graduation with a blood alcohol level of .17.

Ahwatukee resident and father of five, James Rose, believes whether you like it or not, teens are going to drink and while he doesn’t condone it, he says we should do something to help keep them and others on the road safe.

The organization is to start with Kyrene and Tempe Union school districts. Workshops would include stories of teens in the Valley who have died or injured others due to drunk driving and discussions about pressure teens may face. With the help of Bank of America volunteers, the group will educate teens and parents about the completely free alternative to driving impaired or staying safe in any dangerous situation. We can pick them up from school, from a residence or even a restaurant if they need it. If there are 10 to 15 of them, we'll pick up 10 to 15. We don't want anyone driving.

Our programs goal is to be funded by local area businesses and private donors. Cars and vans are needed, running or not, to help the program go smoothly. Volunteers will pick up anything that could be sold or used for resources for free and provide the donor with a receipt to verify the tax-deductible donation.

The organization has created an advertising campaign for local businesses which offer massive exposure with the company donors name in a glowing moving billboard format on the sides of all vans that drive throughout Ahwatukee, Foothills and the surrounding areas, for a fixed monthly donation of $250. This amount of exposure is a real deal for local area businesses considering these services cost over $1500 a month on the average.

We urge all parents to take a few hours out of their busy evening schedules to get truthful answers to hard questions we must ask our teens and help them stay safe.

Please visit our website at www.partnerachild.org or call James Rose at 480.969.3724 ext 1 for details on the upcoming workshops in the area. Please read published articles on the website from the" AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS", "ABC15.com" and The "ARIZONA REPUBLIC NEWS".

# # #

Nonprofit community specific programs for children and teens to get teens home safe from proms, parties, dates and all events.