Chevrolet Partners With Safe Kids Worldwide And Cub Scouts To Promote Safety

Kickoff event planned for Hendrick Motorsports

CHARLOTTE - Chevrolet, along with partner Safe Kids Worldwide, is teaming up with the Cub Scouts to help 6 to 10 year-olds learn about vehicle safety. The program kicks off in Charlotte at Hendrick Motorsports. More than 200 Charlotte-area Cub Scouts and their family members will take part in the special pilot program.

“This truly shows the depth and breadth of Chevrolet and General Motors,” says Ed Peper, Chevy General Manager. “We have worked with Safe Kids Worldwide for several years. This is a chance for us to work cooperatively with the Cub Scouts to reach an important demographic - families with boys ages six through 10 - and teach them how to make good decisions in and around vehicles. The fact that Rick Hendrick offered us his facility to kick this program off really shows how committed our partners are in working together.”

The program looks at several aspects of safety, including proper safety belt/booster seat usage, how to contact OnStar in the event of an emergency, preventing trunk entrapment, and teaching families to never leave a child alone in a vehicle. Peper says he hopes to expand the program to other cities soon.

“We will start in the Charlotte area and we will learn from the young people here. Then we can expand the program to reach Cub Scouts in other cities across America,” Peper says.

The program is designed to teach kids about vehicle safety, but Chevy and Safe Kids will also learn from the experience. As each child begins the program, a short questionnaire will measure what kids already know. At the end of the program, their knowledge will be measured again to see how much information was learned. Cub Scouts who complete the program will receive a wallet safety card and an Automotive Safety patch.

According to Safe Kids training and technical manager Lorrie Walker, reaching Cub Scouts is an important way to promote a family-oriented automotive safety experience. Children who ’graduate’ from traditional child safety seats need to be evaluated to ensure they are not skipping booster seats.

“Booster seats provide an important next step for kids who are too big for a child safety seat but still do not fit properly in an adult safety belt,” says Lorrie Walker, the training and technical manager for Safe Kids Worldwide. “Cub Scouts are the typical age of a child who has graduated too soon, and we expect to find many Scouts who should be in a booster but aren’t. This program will allow us to educate booster age kids, their families and pack leaders who often transport several children in their vehicles.”

Cub Scout Division Director for the Boy Scouts of America Sam Thompson says the new program fits right in with Cub Scout goals.

“All across America on any given day of the week, volunteers and parents are transporting their young boys from activity to activity,” Thompson says. “It is our desire to educate all of our members and leaders to help facilitate the safe delivery of these young people to their various destinations. Cub Scouting has always been about education, and we see this opportunity as a logical step in helping our boys and their parents.”

Chevrolet and Safe Kids will announce new locations for the program soon.

About Safe Kids Worldwide

Safe Kids Worldwide is a global network of organizations whose mission is to prevent accidental childhood injury, a leading killer of children 14 and under. More than 450 coalitions in 16 countries bring together health and safety experts, educators, corporations, foundations, governments and volunteers to educate and protect families. The Safe Kids Buckle Up program was created in 1996 with support from General Motors. In 2005 Chevrolet became the lead brand in the partnership.

About Cub Scouts

Cub Scouting, the largest of the Boys Scouts of America’s three membership divisions, is a year-round family program designed for boys who are in the first through fifth grades. Serving nearly 4.5 million young people between 7 and 20 years of age with more that 300 councils throughout the United States and its territories, the Boy Scouts of America is the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. For more information on the BSA, please visit www.scouting.org.

About Hendrick Motorsports

Founded by Rick Hendrick in 1984, Hendrick Motorsports has earned nine championships in NASCAR’s top three divisions and 145 victories in the sanctioning body’s premier series, the NEXTEL Cup. The organization currently fields Chevrolet race cars on the Cup and Busch Series circuits with drivers Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Terry Labonte and Jimmie Johnson. Headquartered in Concord, N.C., the company employs 500 people and proudly services the sponsorships of more than 30 of the world’s most respected brands. Please visit HendrickMotorsports.com for more information.

About Chevrolet

Chevrolet is one of America’s most well-known and successful automotive brands. With the largest dealer network in the United States, Chevy is the leader in full-size trucks and the leader in sales of vehicles priced $35,000 and above. In addition, Chevrolet delivers more-than-expected value in every vehicle category, offering cars and trucks priced from $9,995 to $52,000. Chevy has more vehicles than any other manufacturer that provide more than 30 mpg. Offering dynamic yet timeless designs, Chevy owners demand great looks that don’t go out of style, high performance per dollar, and features expected in more expensive vehicles.

Chevrolet’s global headquarters is at the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit. For more information, go to www.chevy.com.

Contact Information

Carolyn Grant Normandin

Chevrolet

General Motors Corp.

Contact via E-mail