14-year-old freshman Kirsten Fox walks through the halls of Notre Dame High School, pausing to help blow up balloons and answer questions. The occasion was Notre Dame’s first Driver Safety Awareness Day sponsored by MAKUS.

Named for 16-year-old Michael Appleby, a Notre Dame student killed in a car accident in November of 2001, MAKUS stands for Michael Appleby Keeping Us Safe. Kirsten feels the need for this driver’s awareness program very deeply - Michael was her boyfriend.

“It’s been like a roller coaster since he died. One day I can talk about him and laugh and it’s okay. Then other days it’s hard not to cry.”

Kirsten and her fellow students worked with MAKUS founder and Michael’s mother, Judy Appleby, to organize this special day at Notre Dame.

Wednesday morning began with a school-wide assembly where Leo Mudd, former Kentucky police officer, spoke to the students about “Taking Time to Think.”

Eileen McHenry is Director of Communications at Notre Dame high school. “I think Leo Mudd said it best in his speech to the students - you have to take the time to think and use your knowledge. We’re trying to get our students to think about the decisions they make behind the wheel and the consequences those decisions could have. Then perhaps there won’t be any consequences.”

Students rotated through assembly speakers, discussion panels and safety classes throughout the day. The activities ended with more than 1,000 balloons being released at the Notre Dame football field. MAKUS held a similar release at McBrien elementary school last week and one balloon made it all the way to Ashville, North Carolina.

“A man who had lost his son in a car crash found it,” Mrs. Appleby said. “He was very pleased to be able to call and let us know he had found it.”

One of the most popular safety centers today was the driving simulator similar to the model Mrs. Appleby is looking to purchase for the school’s own program. Deborah Quackenbush is Vice President of Commercial Products for Raydon, the company demonstrating the simulator at Notre Dame.

“I’ve always looked at driver’s education as a life skill,” she said. “I’ve never known anybody to die because they didn’t know how to conjugate a verb or balance their checkbook, but I’ve often known kids who have died out on the highway because they didn’t have proper driver’s education.”

Ms. Quackenbush said that driver’s education is an easy target when school budgets get tight, but that without it, “kids don’t have an opportunity to get a solid basis of driving skills.”

Mrs. Appleby said it was important for the students to see and experience the simulator as part of the driver’s awareness activities. She also said the day’s events meant a great deal to her personally. “I think Notre Dame has been affected more than any school should be affected by this. We’ve had 3 students killed in the last year-and-a-half in car accidents, we feel very strongly about this program.”

Bob Moore, Father of Cassie Moore, the last Notre Dame student to be lost to a car accident, said that driver’s awareness programs should be the concern of the entire community. “If people don’t have a 15 or 16-year-old driver, they think this doesn’t affect them. But these kids are on the road where they come into contact with possibly thousands of drivers. They’re making decisions every few seconds that could alter somebody’s life forever. It is an awesome responsibility and they must be fully trained. Anyone who is a licensed driver has a stake in this.”

Mr. Moore said to get the program financially stable, members of the community should open their own wallets, but, he said, “The program won’t happen to the extent it should if this is only privately funded.”
He recommends talking to local politicians and school administrators and asking that the program be funded.

Kirsten Fox said the Driver Safety Awareness Day brought her comfort through the loss of her boyfriend. “It just means Michael really had a purpose. God needed him to bring this about,” she said. “Michael was always a protector, always making sure everybody was okay. In a way, I guess he still is.”

Colleen Murrin, Jackie Koopmann, Lisa Abell, Matt Murray and Meghann Nabor with balloons on Driver's Awareness Day at Notre Dame High School.
- Photo2 by Christina Siebold