Joel's Drive for Car Seat Safety

Hello, 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my gofundme!! My name is Joel and I have spent countless hours working on a project for school to raise awareness of the importance of car seat safety and education. As I near graduation from D'Youville College as a Family NP, I would like to see my project go further and change the lives of families. But I need your help to DRIVE this home! 


Interesting facts you may not know!!!
  ~From 2002 to 2011 the death rate of children aged 0 to 12 years
      decreased from 2.2 deaths per 100,000 to 1.2, accounting for
      9,182 deaths in total.

~In 2009, over 140,000 children aged 0 to 12 years were
     treated for non-fatal injuries.

~In 2011, 33 percent of deaths of children aged 0 to 12 years were
     from MVC’s in which the child was unrestrained.

~In 2013, 134 children aged <1year died in a MVC, approximately 500
    were hospitalized, and over 8,000 were treated in the ER

~Each year, MVC’s injure 80,000 children aged 1 to 8 years. Costs  
    related to fatal and non-fatal injuries from MVC’s reached over
    $3.6 billion. 


I have already invested $326.07 in printing and developing posters and brochures for a presentation day. Not to mention 6 credit hours in graduate tuition researching the project! And will be spending well over $500.00 in attorney fees to file a copyright for the project to be used commercially.

The money that I raise will go towards:

• Development 
• Legal Costs 
• Marketing
• Production and Distribution 

**If money raised exceeds costs, I will donate a portion to a charitable foundation that focuses on child passenger safety**

This is my finished project that I would like to distribute throughout pediatric offices, children's hospitals, and any other businesses that will place this in their waiting areas (ie. car washes, DMV, dealerships). Each pamphlet contains vital information to keep our children SAFE!

I was unsure whether I would spend the money to push forward and implement my project in the community and after my presentation today I received such wonderful positive feedback that I felt it was my duty to try and raise the money (thank you Adelle {my girlfriend} for the gofundme idea)  to cover the costs and see that this project gets into the hands of as many parents and caregivers (grandparents, babysitters, nurses, etc.) as possible. 


Some other fun facts about me that began this journey to raise awareness of car seat safety. I have been a volunteer Firefighter and EMT for 12+ years, 2 years as an EMT for a commercial agency, and 5 years as a nurse at Children's hospital working in the NICU, PICU, & ER. 


There is a misconception that you can have your car seat checked at any local fire department... This is false. There is a 3-4 day course to become a nationally certified child passenger safety technician. Which I took 2 years ago. Many fire departments do not have a CPS Tech available. Many parents do not even realize that they have mistakenly used the car seat improperly and most of the time the mistake is classified as a major mistake per the NHTSA. 

So please help me: