For being the First Nation group within the Yorkton Tribal Council (YTC) with the best record of promoting traffic safety, the Keeseekoose Chiefs Education Centre received a prize of $20,000.
The money, which is to be used to continue informing residents and passers-by of proper road and highway measures, allowed the school to purchase a solar-fueled lighted traffic sign, armbands for pedestrians using highways or roads and special car care kits.
The school received the lighted sign last week and it is currently set up on the driveway to the school, Teresa Sanderson, an organizer of the SGI Safety project. Because the sign is part of a small trailer, plans are to move it to various locations for events such as sports days.
In the SGI Buckle-Up campaign, a competition is held for students that reach the most people with traffic safety messages, Sanderson explained. This marks the second time that the Keeseekoose school has won the challenge.
For the competition, the students, who were also working with Esther Whitehawk of the YTC, were set up on Highway No. 8 where they flagged down passing motorists to check for seatbelt use, she said. If the drivers and passengers were wearing their seatbelts, the received a small gifts, if not, they were asked to turn around and return to the stop wearing those seatbelts, and then they received their gifts.
A week later, the students returned to the highway and stopped vehicles to count the number that were wearing seatbelts.
Having relayed their message to more people than did the other schools in the YTC area, the Keeseekoose students won the money which was to be used to further road safety awareness, she said.
