Project Ignition Honors the Best of the Best

March 26, 2010

Project Ignition, a teen driver safety program sponsored by State Farm® and coordinated by the National Youth Leadership Council, celebrated its sixth year at the 21st Annual National Service-Learning Conference in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, March 26. With a rousing award ceremony and celebration afterward, State Farm honored exemplary Project Ignition programs.

Project Ignition judges honored Harry D. Jacobs High School, of Algonquin, Ill., with the 2010 Best of the Best Award, which honors a U.S. high school for its outstanding work. Accepting the award on behalf of her classmates, Laura Saldivar said, “We want to congratulate all the … schools and we want everyone to continue what they are doing. If we all work together we can make an amazing impact on the world.”

Harry D. Jacobs High School was recognized for its comprehensive campaign, which included helping other schools create and implement successful safe driving campaigns. In addition, they presented workshops, developed public service announcements, created videos, and worked with local state representatives on improving the Illinois Graduated Licensing system.

Susan Hood, State Farm Claims Vice President, explained the importance of the evening as she highlighted the significant work of the top11 schools in reducing teen driving accidents and deaths.This year, Hood explained, “Because there is so much talent and so many truly innovative ideas in this room … we’ve decided to expand the awards that we offer. We’ll also honor schools whose work stood out in four categories.”

The award categories and recipients were:

  • National Leader for Active Engagement of Youth and Community: Harry D. Jacobs High School in Algonquin, Ill.
  • National Leader for Best Use of Media: Owen Valley High School in Spencer, Ind.
  • National Leader in Meaningful Ties to Academics: Payson High School in Payson, Ariz.
  • National Leader for Impact on Teen Driver Safety: Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School in Gibson City, Ill.

In addition, Northern Secondary School of Toronto, Ontario, was recognized as the Canadian Champion for 2009-10, the first year the competition expanded to Canada.

The top 11 schools this year have been named Project Ignition Leader Schools for the coming school year. They include:

  • Eureka High School, Eureka, Calif.
  • Fayetteville High School, Fayetteville, Ark.
  • Gibson City – Melvin Sibley High School, Gibson City, Ill.
  • Harry D. Jacobs High School, Algonquin, Ill.
  • Ionia County Intermediate School District, Ionia, Mich.
  • Owen Valley High School, Spencer, Ind.
  • Payson High School, Payson, Ariz.
  • Ridgemont High School, Ridgeway, Ohio
  • Rushville Consolidated High School, Rushville, Ind.
  • Yelm High School, Yelm, Wash.
  • Northern Secondary School, Toronto, Ontario

“I’m so proud of every single school and I’m positive we have 11 winners. The Best of the Best awardee is an example of what they’ve all done,” said Michael VanKeulen, NYLC’s Project Ignition director.

The Best of the Best Award brings with it a $10,000 grant to allow the school to continue its service-learning work around teen driver safety. Recognizing that car crashes are the number one killer of teens, Harry D. Jacobs teacher Eliseo Saldivar said, “All the work we do, if we save one life, we’ve done our job.”

Project Ignition played additional and vital roles in The 21st Annual National Service-Learning Conference by showcasing their projects in Ignition Lane, an expo area dedicated to Project Ignition. They also presented their projects to conference participants via workshops.
Visit www.sfprojectignition.com for more information about Project Ignition including important enhancements being made to the program for the 2010-2011 school year.