This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

Ollie Otter's amazing 20 year story is brought to you by WCTE and Tennessee Tech's IQ, with funding provided by the Tennessee Road Builders Association in Mid-State construction.

[♪♪] Has your child ever told you to please slow down when you're driving through a work sound?

Have they ever mentioned belts to bones?

If you've heard these words coming from a little voice in the backseat of your car, you can thank Ollie Otter for that.

Hi, I'm MaelyBeth and Ollie Otter is a close friend of mine.

We work in the same office at Tennessee Tech University.

And today I want to show you a few clips from a movie we got to work on together.

I also wanted to introduce you to some of the people who make the Ollie Otter Booster seat and Seat Belt Safety program possible.

Today you can find Ollie in 12 states across the country.

But he started out right here in Tennessee 20 years ago.

[♪♪] Is this thing on?

Can you hear me?

You can?

Okay.

Awesome.

Hey guys, it's M.B.. Today we're going to talk about traffic safety with my good friend Ollie Otter.

But first hit it guys.

Three two.

One...Ollie!

[♪♪] Ollie, we need your help.

[♪♪] Ollie, says don't clam up.

Ollie, says tell a grown up.

Ollie says drop the phone.

Ollie says belts to bones.

Ollie says be the change.

Ollie says pave the way.

Ollie says under the line it's booster time.

[♪O - L - L - I - E♪] Little voices, big changes.

I think that the best part for me is the way that the kids interact with Ollie.

It's so rewarding to see how the kids are so happy and excited, and when they give them hugs and high fives and they jump around and they're so happy and they yell and scream when he comes out.

He's a cool, cool guy and an utterly otter way.

The kids love Ollie.

He's energetic.

He dances around.

I've never seen so many kids interested in seeing how tall they are in their lives.

So they come up to the presentation they, like, stand in front of a ruler and it just shows like they're all trying to get to four foot nine, but most of them aren't.

And so it just shows the real, like how many kids actually need to be in booster seat at those ages and stuff.

Ollie and I traveled to California together.

Ollie and I have, we've spent a lot of time together.

He's a really happy, fun mascot.

I have young people now that have come to me and they say, you know what?

I was in a car accident and I had on my seat belt, and I know that's what saved my life, but I wouldn't have done that probably if I hadn't been drilled in my head from kindergarten to high school to put on my seatbelt.

So I hear a lot of these, and they contact me to tell me.

And it does it just it touches my heart that that that does make a difference.

It's a constant message that's out there.

Ollie's out there in in the signs.

In the school's signs and the school drive up lines.

Ollie's out there in the billboards along the community roads.

Ollie is the friendly, smiley mascot that everybody kind of comes to know and love.

When Ollie goes in you can't hear yourself.

They're screaming, Ollie!

Ollie!

So I feel that if you teach them one thing about safety, I think Ollie has done that for children.

Some of the greatest things that I can remember is just watching their faces, you know, and I've mentioned this, you know what you do and you see them when they're young, and then you watch them as they grow up, and then they, you actually see them driving and, and, you know, and you sit there and they remember, you know, and they know you by name and they remember things that you taught them when they were little, you know, that they're still doing, especially when they start driving, you know, because that's kind of the whole goal of what we do to educate them for that.

We've had some other programs where we've tried to do some curriculum at schools to talk about, you know, work zones.

And TDOT had had a program where they would go out to the high schools and try to do some demonstrations.

But from a longevity standpoint, and certainly the impact of how many people are reaching, it's the best.

It's the best program we've had with regard to outreach and getting the message out about slowing down.

This is a real success story in education.

I mean, we have a statewide program being run to teach kids about seatbelts and booster seats and some additional types of categories to.

The personal connection I make with those kids when I see their faces as I'm doing the presentation, and I look each child in the eye and I'm telling them, this is going to keep you safe.

And you mean you mean a lot to me.

That's why I'm here telling you this.

To me, that's that connection.

That's what really drove me to do this in the beginning is because getting up in front of 500, 600 kids for a presentation, I had no aspirations to do that.

It was not my strength to do public speaking, but I really wanted those kids to be safer.

Technology has changed since 2007, when the Ollie Otter Program began, and Ollie is one busy safety advocate.

We created this virtual option for Ollie to reach more classrooms than ever.

It's easy to schedule a presentation just like this one.

Go to OllieOtter.org and let us know where and when you'll be watching.

We'll even send a school kit with classroom resources to make the experience even more memorable.

Hey, do you know Ollie Otter?

Yeah!!!

He taught me everything I know about passenger safety.

Slowing down in work zones, sitting in the right seat, being a good passenger, and of course, always wearing my seat belt.

Wait.

Ollie actually has a couple of really fun episodes.

Why don't I just share my screen and show you?

Check this out.

Hey, please slow down.

[phone ringing] Trouble at the construction zone?

Ollie, you better check it out.

Ollie, I'm trying to work, but these cars keep spinning by making me nervous.

In that video, Ollie helps remind drivers that when we see traffic cones and road barrels, we need to slow down.

When we're out driving, we see lots of colors on the road, don't we?

What do we think it means whenever we see red?

Stop!

You're right.

Red means stop.

What about green?

Go!!

Yeah, green means go.

What color were the traffic cones and road barrels that we saw in Ollie's video?

Orange!!

That's right.

They were orange.

Do you know what it means when we see orange on the road?

Orange means caution.

When we see orange, that means our road builder friends are working hard to fix our roadways, and we need to be extra careful when driving past them.

The idea behind Ollie Otter started with a personal tragedy.

Carol Coleman led the Tennessee Road Builders Association to create a program promoting seatbelt usage.

After losing several friends and family members to roadway crashes.

Using a booster seat law that had recently gone into effect in our state.

The Tennessee Road Builders Association and Tennessee Tech's IQ joined together to introduce the Ollie Otter Booster Seat and Seatbelt Safety program to teach kids and their parents about the importance of slowing down and work zones.

Driving without distractions, wearing a seatbelt across their shoulder chests and hip bones, and using a car seat or booster seat when they are below four feet, nine inches tall.

[♪light music♪] Everyone who's involved in a traffic safety program has some reason to be involved in it.

You know, they think about how their life has been impacted, and they think about how their community has been impacted.

And that many times helps them get engaged and and, you know, work to to make a difference.

When my nephew Alex, it was my sister's son, the only son she had, it was just devastating.

Devastating to the family and to me and our family.

And then the next year, when my Aunt Liz, she and I graduated together and were cheerleaders together when she and her daughter were killed, it just, you know, how sometimes you just feel What can I do?

What can I do?

So I just had a period of a year, almost, of trying to figure out what I could do to make highway safety safe.

I thought if I can make kids safe, then when they grow up, if they hear the message in kindergarten through high school, when they grow up and start to drive, they will remember Ollie and they will wear their seatbelts.

So that was my goal to to get the kids to be safe.

14 years ago, Carol Coleman was meeting with President Bell about civil engineering scholarships, and our community had just experienced a tragic accident.

They came over to to talk to us.

Carol had this idea that was related to to traffic safety.

That was a godsend, because when we explained to Kevin what we wanted to do, he explained to us that a young lady was coming to tech and work with him and a good family friend of theirs, daughter had just been killed on Saturday night in Cookeville.

And so Kevin was so excited and and when I got home, I got a text and he said, Carol, this was meant to be.

So with Kevin and Tennessee Tech, he said, we can do it.

The program started and I joined shortly after they brought the program to Tennessee Tech.

There was so much passion in the invitation to be a part of it.

I couldn't say no.

I have four kids, and I really understood how important it was for me to make sure they were safe traveling in cars and trucks.

And so when this program came to me, when Kevin introduced it to me, and then I met Carol Coleman, it was it was life changing for me to be involved with a program that was going to save kids lives.

Ollie has visited schools in all 95 Tennessee counties each year in the program's two decades of impact, Ollie has visited over 4600 schools, shared child passenger safety information with over 41,000 Tennessee classrooms, and even given over 1.3 million high fives, a number that grows every single week with new presentations.

Oh, hey, I've got a message.

It's from Ollie Otter.

He said, leaving soon.

See you in a bit.

Ollie is so responsible.

He never texts while driving, and he always lets me know when he is on his way before he leaves.

Let's see.

Let's send him some emojis.

I'll send a thumbs up and a seatbelt emoji to remind him to buckle up before he leaves.

Ollie just sent a selfie.

He said of course.

Every trip, every time.

Actually, that reminds me of another Ollie episode.

Here it is.

[♪baseball music♪] Someone needs your help Ollie.

Make sure the business is ready for the business meeting.

No, no, no.

Not that.

Dad.

You're not supposed to hold the phone while you drive.

And no texting either.

[♪♪] I've got to think of something for safety.

And my daughter said, mom, I think Tennessee has just passed a new law that if a child is under nine and four feet nine, they have to be in a booster seat.

Well, my grandson came home from school and I said to him, Coleman, do you sit in your booster seat?

And he said, Gaga, it's not cool to sit in a booster seat.

So I knew right then that somehow or other, I had to do something to make it cool for kids to want to sit in a booster seat.

So that's how we started.

The booster seat law was pretty new in Tennessee, where it expanded and made kids up to nine years old require using a booster seat in a car.

I had an eight year old.

She was not using the booster seat, and the knowledge that it provided me helped me protect my child longer while she was riding in the car with me.

You have to look at a traffic stop sometimes, you know there's an educational opportunity as well, and there are people that sincerely don't understand the booster seat law.

There are people that don't understand, you know, the under four feet nine, you know, concept and booster time.

We knew right away that that we just flat out said this, this needs to be bigger than Putnam County.

This needs to be more than Overton county.

We need to build a program.

We need to take it statewide.

Our goal was to reach 50 schools across the state.

And once we started calling, they were all saying yes.

And so it quickly mushroomed into reaching into 95 counties the very first year of the program.

And we never had anybody say no.

They were they were like, well, when can you come?

How much does it cost?

And the key factor is it's free.

It's a free program.

The funding and the sponsorship for it through the Tennessee Road Builders, through the Tennessee Highway Safety Office and the other agencies and sponsors and stakeholders.

They've made it possible where nothing is prohibitive to the schools for getting Ollie in.

They just have to allow us time with their kids.

I met with the board of the Tennessee Road Builders and I said, Will you help?

We need to make something cool for kids, for highway safety.

And since the Tennessee road builders are so interested in how I safety, I want to know if you would sponsor me.

It was just like, okay, let's try it.

Other things we tried, you know, that were short lived and may or may not have been effective.

But obviously the longevity of this thing has proven to a lot of people that that idea and Carol's had a long time ago was has been awesome.

And it's been and it's been a really great program.

The Tennessee Highway Safety Office quickly adopted the Ollie Otter program as part of their occupant protection initiatives.

During our presentations, we talk about the laws that keep us safe, like driving hands free and wearing a seatbelt in the car.

We encourage kids to speak up and remind everyone in the car to buckle up and avoid distractions, like using their phone while driving at the very end of the presentation.

We also like to measure some of the kids to show them that if they are under four feet nine inches, that it's booster time.

We want following safe practices in the car to be second nature.

When the kids we talked to today are eventually sitting behind the steering wheel.

I don't think you guys are driving yet, right?

No.

Well, you can still help by making sure the adult driving your car can focus on the road.

So tell me when you're riding in the car.

Should we throw our toys?

No.

Should we ask our driver to look at something in the back seat?

No.

Should we sing songs at the top of our lungs?

No.

Okay, okay.

I know that one is tempting, but it can be very distracting.

And we want to make sure that we're being great passengers so that the adults can get us where we need to go safely.

Now.

Last one.

Should we sit calmly buckled up and enjoy the car ride?

Yes, exactly.

When I'm the passenger in a car, I love looking out the window at the cool cars and buildings.

It's even better when I have a nice snack to eat.

All these are great tips.

It reminds me that I should probably set my phone on Do Not Disturb for the rest of our meeting while I do that.

How about you watch this next Ollie episode?

This is a good one.

Good thing I had my safety harness, right Ollie?

[phone ringing] A friend needs your help?

You should drop in for a visit.

Ollie.

Dad isn't wearing his seat belt correctly.

When you put on a seatbelt, make sure it goes belt to bones.

[♪♪] I will say without text involvement in it.

I'm not for sure it would have the longevity of that house simply because we as a as we didn't have the staff to be able to do it, and the fact that we could work with work with the university has, has just been phenomenal.

We're always worried about traffic, we're always worried about safety.

And Ollie brought those things.

And so I felt like that it was important that I donated my time for the association and for the industry to help to to any way that I could to help promote that.

I started out as a part time person, but it was really a full time job.

I had to manually locate all of the elementary schools across the state and then, you know, using it was website databases, but it was a different way of doing things back then, 15 years ago.

So nothing was really smooth.

And I used to have hard copy information sheets on 1200 elementary schools.

[♪♪] I knew it was going to be a success, but I probably didn't know that it was going to be so accepted.

We're in seven other states that they have taken the Ollie program, and that's mind boggling.

You know, to think about it could have never done it without Bo, Tennessee Road Builders, Kevin and Julie and all the workers at Tennessee Tech.

I mean, they were all involved, every one of them.

It could have never been that successful without them.

There was no question it wasn't going to be successful.

And I think that there's no I think that we're all real proud of it.

And I mean, Ollie's a part of Road Builders, I mean and Road Builders is a part of Ollie.

I, there's not a question about that.

And so I think the, I think the membership and the industry is very proud of it.

People are so excited about doing this program and saving lives that I feel it'll just get larger and larger.

The benefit of saving lives, you know, getting kids to buckle up, getting their parents or grandparents to buckle up.

And so that's that's very important.

And then obviously, the message of just slowing down and work zones, that's also a critical part of the program.

You know, we're very grateful for that as much as we can get that message out.

So overall it's been it's been a great program for the association and certainly a great PR tool for us as well.

When we started this program, car crashes were the number one injured and killer of kids.

And that still remains true as far as motor vehicle crashes being a preventable injury.

I'd love to see that number just go to zero fatalities for kids, zero fatalities, zero injuries.

Just because the technology is there, the resources are there, and just making parents aware of those resources is a huge step in making kids safe and reaching zero fatalities.

As long as we still have children growing up and going in car seats and things that you sat right there, our job will never stop, you know, and we've got to take pride in that.

We've got to take ownership in that.

And I think that's something that that just really makes me proud of this program.

Do you see Ollie anywhere?

Oh, Ollie, you silly otter.

Come meet my friends.

Everyone say hi Ollie.

Hi Ollie!!

We've been talking about traffic safety all day.

I showed them some clips of you and how you help people stay safe on the road.

Should we go over everything one more time?

Now that Ollie's here?

Yeah.

First up, we learned that when we see orange cones and road barrels, it's time to slow down.

Do you remember what we say when we see orange?

Please slow down!

Please slow down.

That's right.

Next, we learned about the hands free Tennessee law.

This means no phones, no distractions.

Just hands on the wheel.

Can you do it with me?

Hands free Tennessee!

Now let's talk about seatbelts.

We learned to wear our seatbelts the right way.

From belts to bones.

Let's say it together with the moves.

Belts.

Two Bones.

Finally, if you're under four feet, nine inches, you need a booster seat to help the seat belt fit you just right.

Remember, a booster seat boosts you up so that the seatbelt hits those strong bones when someone's under four- foot- nine.

What do we say?

Booster time.

Booster time.

Great job everyone.

You learned how to slow down.

Stay hands free.

Buckle up the right way and know when it's booster time.

Remember, you can help keep everyone safe by speaking up and sharing these tips with your family.

High five for safety.

Little voices.

Big changes.

[♪♪] Belts to bones.

That's very important.

You know, they'll let you know that that seat belt is secure.

And you know it doesn't hurt to tug at it a little bit too to make sure that it is secure.

Ollie, do you like Captain Christian?

I like Ollie, too.

[♪♪] Seatbelts really do save lives and Ollie's mission is to keep everyone safe on the road.

By teaching kids, we're teaching the next generation of drivers those little voices from the back seat reminding you to slow down, drop your phone and buckle up are learning how to advocate for their own safety and the safety of others.

Ollie has been ending each presentation with high fives for over two decades now.

Adapting to challenges, incorporating new technologies has always led the Ollie Otter program to success, which means our 2 millionth high five is right around the corner.

This is Ollie's his friend MaelyBeth reminding you under 4' 9" is booster time.

Thank you for watching.

[♪♪] Ollie Otter's amazing 20 year story is brought to you by WCTE and Tennessee Tech's IQ, with funding provided by the Tennessee Road Builders Association in Mid-State construction.

This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank You.