DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation Announces the Finalists for its D3NJ Contest

SOUTH AMBOY, N.J., March 30, 2012 – The DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation is pleased to announce the ten finalist for the inaugural Don’t Drive Distracted New Jersey (D3NJ) teen safe driving awareness campaign contest. After an extensive registration period, stage one campaign idea submission phase and public voting process, the ten New Jersey high school students who will compete in the final phase for either a new car or college scholarship are:

Mike Andre, Ocean Township; Megan Barbuty, Bedminster; Jahiyah Fields, South Amboy; Courtney Hryniowski, Hazlet; Sarah Lin, Marlboro; Jonathan Lonski, East Brunswick; Nikhil Patel, Scotch Plains; Zoe Petitt, Basking Ridge; Casey Ramos, Garfield; and Jordan Scharf, Short Hills.

These ten students received the highest numbers of votes over the entire ten business days of public voting hosted by D3NJ’s Facebook page. The campaign ideas submitted by all the participants contained a campaign name, a tag line, a short synopsis describing their proposed teen safe driving awareness campaign, and the selected media that will be used in the campaign.

The finalists will now compete in the final phase of the D3NJ contest, which will include the submission of their full project outlines for their teen safe driving campaign proposals. The full project outline is expected to generally adhere to the finalist’s campaign idea and include at a minimum:

• A detailed description of the campaign;
• Scripts, storyboards, mock-ups, plans and/or conceptual ideas ready for production;
• Describe and define their target audience;
• Estimated production budget (not to exceed $10,000); and
• An estimated timeline for production.

The final phase of D3NJ will be judged by a panel of outside judges, experts in the field of teen safe driving, youth safety and marketing.

The judges include: Erin Meluso, President of RADD; Nicole Graziosi, Director of Programs for the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS); Jason Westerheide, Former National President of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA); John Ulczycki, Group Vice President, Research, Communications and Advocacy at the National Safety Council (NSC); and Carol Ronis, Senior Manager of Communication for the AAA Foundation.

D3NJ is a teen safe driving awareness campaign and contest for high school students, the first of its kind by an auto retailer in New Jersey. Over 250 teens from across New Jersey registered to compete in the competition to bring awareness to the dangers of distracted driving. The winning campaign design will be produced and distributed by a grant from the DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation.

A ceremony to announce the grand prize winner will be held May 5 at DCH Academy Honda, Old Bridge, as part of the DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation’s kickoff to Global Youth Traffic Safety Month (GYTSM). GYTSM is a world-wide awareness month held each May to focus on traffic related crashes, the leading cause of death for teens.

Since 2008, DCH Auto Group, in keeping with the company’s core values, has focused its charitable giving, local community involvement and grass roots activism to the cause of teen safe driving. The auto retailer, with 29 car dealerships in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and California, formed the DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation earlier this year to further the company’s message that distracted driving, especially among new and young drivers, is dangerous and potentially deadly.

For more information about the D3NJ safe driving awareness contest, please visit www.D3NJ.org or contact Roy Bavaro at 732-952-0218

About DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation
The DCH Teen Safe Driving Foundation is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries resulting from teen related auto crashes by promoting safe driving through greater awareness, education and advocacy directed to teens and their parents.

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