The community can help Palisades Charter High School win $100,000. ‘We’re not asking anyone to write a check, but simply go to their computers every day between September 10-15 and click a button,’ said Palisadian Gail Schenbaum Lawton, co-founder of the teen safe driving program In One Instant. Sponsored by State Farm Insurance, the inaugural contest”Celebrate My Drive”is being held in 13 cities across the United States, and the school that receives the most votes/public support in each city will receive $100,000. State Farm is also giving away 14 new cars to teens between the ages of 15-18 (they need not attend PaliHi). To be eligible, a student simply registers every time he or she votes for a high school online. If selected, the teen will win a $15,000 car and $5,000 in cash. The week of voting will culminate in a daylong event and drawing held at the Westfield Culver City Fox Hills Mall from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 15. Different groups from different schools will perform and the PaliHi choir, band, dance and cheerleading teams have been invited. Festa Insurance (a State Farm agency in Pacific Palisades) is helping promote this event. ’Celebrate My Drive celebrates with new drivers as they earn their licenses,’ Rich Festa said. ‘Getting a driver’s license brings new joy and freedom, but the first year behind the wheel can be one of the most dangerous. I believe by supporting this event, it will benefit PaliHi as well as our community. Many community members like myself have benefited in life by attending and/or supporting PaliHi.’ This Sunday, several members of the PaliHi In One Instant club will set up an information table at the farmers market on Swarthmore. Additionally, students are striving to place flyers in local store windows. The school is also setting up computers around campus so that students can register. ‘This is a community event,’ Gail Lawton said. ‘It is a chance for everyone to help a public school at a time when funding for schools is dicey and also a time when many private individuals are also in financial crisis and can’t contribute.’ State Farm, which sponsors In One Instant, came to founders Lawton, Cheryl Wada and Debbie Barnett last month and asked if they wanted to choose a high school to support its contest. The women instantly thought of PaliHi because their children attend or have attended the school. In 2010, the three brought the Every 15 Minute program to Pali. That program replicates a car accident, a death, and an arrest of a student for DUI, and then incarceration. Although highly praised for its effectiveness, the program’s cost was $47,000, which led the women to start a nonprofit (Streetwise Media) to develop In One Instant, which can be implemented in high schools for about $2,500. The new program is endorsed by the CHP, LAPD, LAFD, the L.A. County Department of Public Health, the L.A. County Medical Association and UCLA’s School of Public Health. Lawton asks Palisades High supporters, ‘Please send this message to everyone on your Facebook, Twitter and at your job and ask them to vote. We have a good chance of winning this money if everyone in the Palisades participates.’ Visit: CelebrateMyDrive.com, register and select Palisades Charter High School.
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