Judy Appleby sits in a room adorned with family pictures and talks about her son Michael with a smile that touches her lips but not her eyes.

“He was an athlete from the time he was six years old. Football was his favorite sport. Michael was always a homebody. Even when he was younger he never spent a night away from home. He would always have his friends over here. He was very loving - we always said he would probably be the one to take care of us in our old age.”

A freshman at Notre Dame high school, Michael turned 16 years old on November 10, 2001. In true “homebody” fashion, Michael spent the evening with his friends and family at home, eating pizza and chips, watching movies and playing video games. “Another Notre Dame student was having her birthday party that same night, so the girls were going to that party and the boys were coming here. Nobody told Michael, but that girl changed her party to the next night, so everybody came here and surprised him.”

Ten days later, on November 20th, Michael skipped the Notre Dame basketball game he had planned to attend with his girlfriend, and spent the evening at his cousin’s house. After taking a nap, Michael ate a ham sandwich and went out with his cousins - 15-year-old Andrew and 14-year-old Melanie. With Judy standing in the kitchen discussing the family’s Thanksgiving plans with her sister-in-law, Michael took his cousins for a spin around the block in his mom’s car.

Five minutes later Judy stood on the road peering into the darkness at the car her son had been driving. It had flipped onto its top and was resting at the bottom of a hill.

“They wouldn’t let me get down by the car. I didn’t know he was dead. I kept asking about him, but nobody would tell me. They didn’t know either. I remember seeing LifeForce hovering over the trees, then it flew away,” she says quietly. “There was no bringing him back, the car had landed on him.”

Melanie was buckled in the front passenger seat and escaped without serious physical injury. Her brother Andrew was in the back seat and was not wearing his seatbelt. He was thrown from the car and sustained a concussion.

“Physically he has recovered,” says Judy, “but mentally he hasn’t recovered. Michael was Andrew’s best friend in the whole wide world. They were closer than brothers - they were like twins.”

Melanie and Andrew would later report that Michael had tried to buckle up when they got in the car, but he couldn’t get the seat belt to clip together. Thinking he was just driving around the block, Michael left without securing his seatbelt.

Out of this tragedy, MAKUS was born. “When Michael died, we were faced with all the decisions that have to be made. Of course, after you’ve just lost your 16-year-old son, you don’t know how to make any plans.”

The day after the fatal accident, Notre Dame called Paul and Judy to ask if, in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to a fund of their choosing.

“I asked for a minute to think about it, and I just knew that it should be the Michael Appleby Driver’s Awareness Program,” Judy says.

From that day - less than 24 hours after her youngest son’s death - Judy has worked tirelessly launching a driver’s awareness program in her son’s name.

MAKUS (Michael Appleby Keeping Us Safe) is well into its early stages at Notre Dame High School, but Judy hopes it will expand throughout Hamilton County. “This driver’s awareness program is for Notre Dame, but I hope it will be a model for other schools.”

The program will include drivers safety curriculum, a sophisticated driving simulator, random seatbelt checks and a video entitled “Remembering Michael.”

The video was filmed shortly after his death and includes Judy, along with Michael’s friends, talking about his life, and the moment they learned of his death. It ends with the words “I didn’t. You can. Buckle up!” Judy is working to get “Remembering Michael” into schools as part of the MAKUS driver’s awareness program.

Local cable channel 3 will be running the video several times on March 2nd and 3rd. From 12:30-1 p.m., 5-5:30 p.m. and 8-8:30 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday. “We are so excited that they are helping us get the message out,” Judy says. “I hope everybody will have a chance to watch it.”

“We’ve looked back at old family movies and the kids were always in seatbelts,” says Judy. “Just this one time he didn’t take more time to make it work. We think the most important thing is to get the message out to kids who are inexperienced drivers that this is what can happen to you. The video does that for us.”

And the word is getting out. After meeting with the East Ridge Education Committee, Judy says they have designated March 4-8 as “Driver’s Safety Awareness Week.”

“I told them I needed their help and that they didn’t have to wait for Hamilton County to get a program together, they could take care of East Ridge right now by talking about driver’s awareness and doing seatbelt checks.”

Judy is adamant that a driver’s awareness program does not have to be expensive, especially at the beginning. “East Ridge will be doing it for practically no money, but they’re bringing it up and talking about it and showing the video. It’s a minimal program, but it’s something,” she says, “and that’s more than nothing.”

A major element of the MAKUS program will be a driving simulator. Judy talks excitedly about the state-of-the-art machine she hopes will save lives. “The simulator has 80 different road scenarios. If you crash, it goes to replay and shows you from the air and all different angles what happened, what you should have been looking for and how you could have avoided the accident.”

Judy says the simulator will give inexperienced young drivers the tools they need to make good decisions behind the wheel. Though Michael was a good driver, Judy says the conditions that night were ripe for an accident that a more experienced driver may have avoided. “The speed limit was posted at 30 m.p.h. around a 90 degree curve, there were no signs indicating a sharp curve was coming, and the street light was out. By the time he saw what was coming, it was too late.”

She believes the simulator is essential for Notre Dame’s implementation of MAKUS, but the state-of-the-art training equipment comes with a $90,000 pricetag.

Judy’s goal for MAKUS will be reached when the simulator, curriculum and speakers needed for the program are fully funded, and when the Notre Dame program is endowed. She estimates that will take around $200,000. Community fund-raisers have already been held and more are in the works. At a recent McCallie vs. Notre Dame basketball game, over $1,000 of the proceeds were given to MAKUS, and Notre Dame’s drama department put on a play to benefit the program. When fellow Notre Dame student Cassie Moore was killed in a car wreck in January, Cassie’s parents requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to MAKUS. Last weekend, Our Lady of Perpetual Help held a wrestling tournament with a portion of the proceeds going to the driver’s awareness program bearing their former student’s name. Countless individual donations have also been made.

Judy’s next big fundraiser is scheduled for July 11 - a golf tournament at Windstone. “Our goal for the tournament is to raise $30,000 for the program,” Judy says. “We’ve come so far in just over 12 weeks, but we’ve got a long way to go to get this all in place by next fall. And that is our goal.”

Judy says local businesses are needed to help fund the tournament and some have already volunteered. Lexus donated the hole-in-one car and Rone-Regency Jewelers is engraving keychains for the event. Many of the foursome spots have already been filled, though there are a few still available. But Judy says their real need is for corporate sponsors.

Judy talks with near desperation about what is needed to get MAKUS fully operational by Fall. This wife, mother and full-time 5th grade school teacher has thrown herself into the cause she hopes will save lives - the cause she wishes could have been around to save her son’s life.

“I have to believe that there was a reason for all of this,” she says. “I hate to think my child had to die for it, but (MAKUS) wouldn’t have been brought up if Michael hadn’t died.”

Judy says she hopes her fight will prevent other Mothers from experiencing the pain and loss she lives with every day.

“I miss the little things about him the most,” she says of Michael. “The fact that I don’t have to wake him up in the morning or worry about picking him up after school. I went shopping at Sam’s after he died and just stood there wondering what to buy. I realized the only reason I shopped there was to buy the food Michael liked. That’s the hardest part - just the daily missing him.”

But Judy says she draws strength from her faith, her family, her friends, and from MAKUS.

“I had to make sure Michael didn’t die in vain - that he had a purpose. I couldn’t bury him and let him be forgotten,” she says. “I want him to live on in this program.”

For more information about MAKUS or the MAKUS golf tournament, contact Judy Appleby at: juappleby@yahoo.com