Child car-seat events rally the community to help keep kids safe on the road.
Car-seat events rally the community to protect little ones on the road
“I’ve never seen this before, a community coming together so strongly to support a niche of the population. It’s quite remarkable.”
ZORAIDA ETTRICK
COORDINATOR OF SAFE KIDS MARICOPA
As we drive our children to school, ballet or soccer, we hope that we will arrive to our destinations safely.
Life happens. Accidents happen. Which makes it vital to not only have a car seat, but to have it installed properly.
Enter the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, which will coordinate the Seat Them Safely/Siéntelos Seguros campaign. A priest from the diocese will perform a “blessing of the car seats” ceremony Saturday morning during one of four Valley events.
“The blessing of a car seat is a prayer asking God to watch over the life of the child who will be using that car seat,” said Cristofer Pereyra, director of the Hispanic Mission Office at the Catholic Diocese.
From 8 a.m. to noon, Safe Kids Maricopa, a coalition of child-safety organizations, in conjunction with the Seat Them Safely/Siéntelos Seguros campaign, will educate parents on proper car-seat installation, fundraising and prevention throughout the Valley.
Each of these locations will have trained car-seat-installation technicians and will distribute free car seats. Every family that receives a seat must go through a session on proper installation.
The priest will visit the West Valley location to give a blessing at 7:30 a.m. The four sites are:
North: Target parking lot, Desert Ridge Market Place, Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard, Phoenix.
South: Maricopa Integrated Health Systems, 2601 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix.
East: Mesa Community College, 1833 W. Southern Ave.
West: Abrazo West Campus, 13677 W. McDowell Road, Goodyear.
As The Arizona Republic reported last year, four out of five parents don’t install or use car seats correctly, leaving their children at higher risk of being killed or injured in car crashes. This statistic is even higher among Hispanic and Native American communities.
“The Diocese of Phoenix, and the Catholic Church in general, are always interested in the defense of human life. And we believe that the protection of children’s lives is at the heart of the Siéntelos Seguros campaign,” Pereyra said.
Reporting by The Republic’s Bob Ortega revealed cultural barriers in the Hispanic community, proving a dire need for car-seat-safety information in Spanish. Discussions with members of the community determined that simple reporting would not fix the problem, thus the Seat Them Safely/Siéntelos Seguros campaign was born.
Among those joining the movement are The Republic’s Spanish-language publication, La Voz, along with Univision, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Maricopa Integrated Health System, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, the Phoenix Fire Department, the Phoenix Police Department, the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, AAA of Arizona, Safe Kids Maricopa and Friendly House.
The Republic’s reporting heightened awareness of the problem. The Phoenix Fire Department began receiving 15 to 20 calls a day from parents wanting their car seats checked. This resulted in a $10,000 grant from the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to fund more people to conduct car-seat inspections and installations.
Univision coordinated a Spanish-language phone bank. The BHHS Legacy Foundation raised $25,000 through a donation account, then matched that amount for a total of $50,000, enough to purchase 1,000 car seats.
Zoraida Ettrick, coordinator of Safe Kids Maricopa, said she has been humbled by the responses.
“I’ve never seen this before, a community coming together so strongly to support a niche of the population. It’s quite remarkable,” she said. “We’ve accumulated over 200 car seats and hope to receive a few more in the next few days.”
To volunteer, contact Ettrick at zoraidaettrick@mail.maricopa.gov.