In honor of Red Ribbon Week, Manhattan High’s Students Against Destructive Decisions club hosted a seat belt pledge, which received a grand total of 892 participants.

“I think it went really really well,” co-president Hannah Humes, senior, said. “We had a really good turnout on pledges this year, I think the most we’ve ever had.”

This year the seat belt pledges were administered by QR code through an advisory lesson and through flyers posted around the school. Due to the pandemic, in-person pledges during lunch and middle school pledges weren’t conducted both to give club members valuable class time and to follow social distancing guidelines.

“I think it was a better way for us to not get too much interaction with … COVID-19,” co-president Taylor Claussen, senior, said. “This was just an easier way to stay socially distanced while we were working on [this project].”

Of those who pledged, 25 winners were announced yesterday during advisory: seniors Bella Steames, Corbjin Lamb, Brianna Dowling, Claussen, Humes, Emily Ward, Catherine Hyde and Brityn Bobo; juniors Rachel Corn, Monroe Say, Joshua Fan, Tristan Metivier, Ronan Tanona, Micah Lister and Rachel Edie; sophomores Isabella Ambritz, Jenna Wege, Parker Feeby, Aniah Robbins and Caylee Begnoche; freshmen Issac Sinks, Emma Clyde, Faith Kratochvil and Rylee Wisdoml; and English teacher Seth Alexander. 

The winners will receive the choice of a gift card worth $20-$25 for a restaurant or department store, such as Taco Bell, Starbucks, Target, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chipotle and Dominos. The funding for these gift cards came from an organization called Seatbelts Are For Everyone (SAFE).

“We’re a part of SAFE, which is kind of a branch off of SADD,” Claussen said. “They give us funding for different projects … we do around the school that has to do with wearing seatbelts [and] safe driving.”

SADD hopes students at Manhattan High see beyond the potential award of a gift card and recognize the meaning of their pledge. 

“We really hope [students] learn that making good decisions has a reward, not just gift cards, but just making good decisions can be an award in itself,” Humes said. “If you make those good decisions then you can be safe [and] you can take care of yourself. There’s just a lot of benefits to making good decisions and doing gift cards just kind of helps reinforce that.”