Diana Carbone completes Silver Award Project
Chatham Girl Scout Diana Carbone of Troop 95732 completed her Silver Award project this fall by placing crosswalk safety signs near schools throughout Chatham Borough. With the help of Chatham Middle School art teachers Ms. Kovacsofsky and Ms. Keeshen, Diana ran a poster contest at the Middle School last winter. The winner, Selina Huang, designed the poster and Diana copied them and posted them. It was Chatham Borough Traffic Safety Roy George and Officer Brian Maher who suggested the poster project, when Diana came to the police to ask what she could do about crosswalk safety near the middle school and other schools and even downtown.
Diana first noticed the need for safer cross walks at the Main Street crosswalk near Chatham Middle School. The 6th-8th graders often walk across outside the crosswalk lines or look down at their cell phones instead of watching oncoming cars on busy Main Street. She also saw some adults crossing in dangerous ways on Main Street and thought she’d like to increase safety for everyone.
Diana said, “I hope my posters really do spread awareness of how to stay safe They may even prevent a child or adult from being hit by a car.”
Diana also said that the project “made me realize that even a small project can make a difference in public safety for a small community such as Chatham.”
Chatham Safe Routes to School
We are a community volunteer effort with representatives from schools and local government Chatham Safe Routes to School is part of a national effort supported by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. The program is designed to 1) Enable and encourage children to walk and bike to school; 2) Make biking and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy active lifestyle from an early age; and 3) Facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of schools.
Follow Chatham Safe Routes to School on Facebook
