WHERE: Bettendorf High School, 3333 18th St, Bettendorf, IA 52722
WHEN:   Sunday, October 25th; 7:30 am - 4:30 pm

DETAILS

Car crashes are the leading killer of American teens from ages 15 - 20, with more than 5,000 teens involved in a fatal crash each year and an additional 196,000 injured.

Simple driving errors, avoidable but common among inexperienced teens, cause the majority of fatal accidents.

• Tire Rack Street Survival® is a 501c3 organization and is the largest active non-profit national driver education program that teaches teens the skills they need to stay alive behind the wheel. Unlike traditional driver's education programs based on classroom theory and simple maneuvers, the Tire Rack Street Survival® program improves driver competence through hands-on experiences in real-world driving situations.
• Students will receive a short classroom session and then will learn, hands-on, how to manage everyday driving hazards, obstacles and challenges in a controlled environment on an advanced driving course to ultimately 'arrive alive.'
• Students learn emergency braking and skid control, how to control proper braking, and how to avoid accidents entirely. In select schools, in addition to spending time in the driver's seat of parked 18-wheeler to fully comprehend its massive blind spots, teenagers witness the violent detonation of an air bag, which reinforces proper hand placement on the steering wheel.
• Students are taught in their own cars, not specially prepared program vehicles, so the skills they learn can be directly translated to their daily driving experiences. Tire Rack Street Survival® challenges teenagers to understand how to control a vehicle, rather than just operate one.

Tire Rack Street Survival® is open to licensed and permitted drivers ages 15 - 21. Forms, schedules and more information can be found online at www.streetsurvival.org. The cost is $75 per student and some insurance companies offer premium discounts to graduates.

The program is in its 13th year having trained 14,800 new drivers. 101 schools were completed last year and the goal for 2015 is over 125 nationally.

For the 6th year, Michelin North America is supporting the Street Survival program by providing funding for pavement rental for each school throughout the United States. That is no small task, given that this year the Tire Rack Street Survival schools plan to offer its training to teens all across the U.S.

To view video of the program, please visit http://streetsurvival.org/.

Gayle Harper's Words and Images Honor America's Beauty, her Greatest River and her Colorful People

Quad Cities - When Gayle Harper learned that a raindrop falling into the headwaters of the Mississippi would travel the River for 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico, she knew immediately that her project of a lifetime had appeared.  Harper made a 90-day road trip along the nearly 2,400-mile course of the Mississippi, while keeping pace with a raindrop called "Serendipity."

Harper's journey on the Mississippi River led her through the Quad Cities area, and she will be back again next week to talk about her book, Roadtrip with a Raindrop, her journey, and the people she met along the way.

Thursday, September 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Bettendorf Public Library, 2950 Learning Campus Dr., Bettendorf

Quad Cities Photography Club Meeting - Public Welcome

Friday, September 18 at 6:00 p.m.

River Music Experience, 109 Main Street, Davenport

Harper wandered back roads without plan, meeting people in farm fields, on their porches, in cafés, even while stopped for road construction, who invited her into their lives.  She went to dances, birthday parties, a wedding, a powwow, neighborhood barbeques and festivals. She was invited home to dinner, to meet friends and relatives and onto boats of all sizes, from a canoe to a towboat.

"The people of this journey," says Harper, "are the soul of it. They were welcoming, inclusive, playful, curious, colorful and authentic. There was two-year-old Hazel, who plopped down beside me to show me her green shoes, and 87-year-old Marshall Bouldin III, who moved me to tears when we talked about art. There was a north woods adventurer, a Southern Belle, a "river rat," a Delta Blues man and a pixie-like nun. "

"The Mississippi River is the aorta of our country," says Harper, "it is essential to our ecology and our economy and it is deeply embedded in our history and our very identity.  I watched it grow from a fragile stream into a massive force of nature, yet its essence is always the same."

Roadtrip with a Raindrop is a celebration of America and of the simple moments that make life an adventure. In its 240 pages are 55 stories, with nearly 200 full-color photographs. Together, the words and images invite us to leave our agendas behind, to travel at the pace of a raindrop and to rediscover the fine art of letting life happen!

The book is an Award Winner in Foreword Review's INDIEFAB "Book of the Year," in the Travel category. It has also won The Clarion Award from the National Association of Women in Communications!

BOOK DETAILS

Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 Days Along the Mississippi River

By Gayle Harper

Hardcover, 240 pages, $39.95

Available at www.gayleharper.com