Teen Safety 500 program at Kansas: Georgia-Pacific Corp. brings its Teen Safety 500 program to two Kansas City area high schools on Thursday, Sept. 26. Shawnee Mission North High School and Shawnee Mission West High, both in Overland Park, have been selected to participate in this innovative program that extends Georgia-Pacific’ involvement with NASCAR to spread the message of safe driving among teen-agers. NASCAR driver Kyle Petty will be on hand to present the Georgia-Pacific Teen Safety 500 program to students. The program will include various local dignitaries, Georgia-Pacific representatives and Petty speaking to students about the importance of safety behind the wheel. After the assembly, students will have the opportunity to view an actual NASCAR Winston Cup car outside the school and receive autographs. Activities begin at 10 a.m. at Shawnee Mission North High School. The Georgia-Pacific Teen Safety 500 program is in its second year, with students from four states logging more than 400,000 safe miles in 2001. Kansas City is the fourth of six stops the Teen Safety 500 will make during the 2002 NASCAR season. Student drivers at the two schools will sign a safe-driving pledge to remain violation-free with no crashes during a three-week period. Once registered at Georgia-Pacific’ Web site, students will have the opportunity to win prizes for themselves and their school. Both schools will receive a cash contribution from Georgia-Pacific for their participation. The school with the highest ratio of students completing three weeks of safe driving will win an additional contribution. Georgia-Pacific will provide participating students with a variety of prizes for those who log safe miles, including MP3 players, phone cards from Sprint, and product coupons from McDonalds and Sonic Drive-In. One winner will be chosen from all participating students nationwide to win the grand prize a $1,000 gift card from Best Buy. Petty will be joined by Romell Cooks, regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Patrice Pomeroy, assistant bureau chief of traffic safety for the Kansas Department of Transportation; Tracie Kalic, education program consultant for the Kansas State Board of Education; Col. Donald Brownlee, Kansas Highway Patrol; George Wurtz, president of paper and bleached board for Georgia-Pacific; Dr. Chuck McLean, principal of Shawnee Mission North High School and Dr. Karl Krawitz, principal of Shawnee Mission West High School.(Williams Company PR)(9-24-2002) (9-23-2002)
