Buckle up

I am writing a letter to address a practice that I find alarming. On any given morning as I drive my kids to school and then head to work myself, I see a large population of vehicles with small children in the front passenger seat without a seat belt.

There are varieties of seating configurations that I notice, but alarmingly the most prevalent is as described above. It is not a little known fact that the use of seat belts saves lives. However, it seems that so many people put their children at risk on a daily basis — allowing them to rattle around the automobile unbuckled, ready at any given moment to ricochet through the windshield to their deaths.

The reasons I find this upsetting are:

1. As parents, we are responsible to keep our children as safe as we possibly can.

2. It is our duty to teach them these safety regulations so that, as they grow, the children will learn to keep themselves and others safe.

3. Eventually my child is going to get in a car with your child. This may seem inconsequential to many, but I find it alarming.

I have a teenaged daughter that will soon be learning to drive. Do I want her to know the importance of wearing a safety belt herself as well as for those in the vehicle with her? You bet. Do I want her in a car with someone who has been taught that it is not only not a habit but is unimportant? No way.

The media continually alarms us with reports of deaths from a variety of illnesses and epidemics, and yet the leading cause of death among people 1-34 years of age is automobile crashes. Many of these could be avoided if we made sure to put on our seat belts and teach our children to do the same.

If adults choose to put their lives at risk, so be it, but to knowingly put the life of a child in danger is, to me, no different than handing them a loaded weapon.

Miriam Lewis

Whitefish

Fundraiser thanks

I just wanted to say thanks so much to all the people and businesses that supported the fundraiser to help me with bills. When you have been sick, it really helps to know you have friends. You keep me going.

So many people and businesses have helped me. I can’t name them all, but I would like to thank many who have taken care of me, taken me to dialysis and given donations:

Mack MacCracken, Pin and Cue, Mike and Diane Rice, Al and Eden Dias, Leonard and Billy Jean Howke, Bill Leonard, Howie’s Tire and Alignment, Whitefish Lake Golf Club, Tim Olson, Whitefish Lake Restaurant, Doug and Nikki Reed, The Buffalo Caf/, Charlie and Linda Maetzold, The Bulldog, Eric May, Don and Jeannie Phillips, Stumptown Snowboards, The Wave, Dean McFadden, Midway Motors, Paul Biolo, Flathead Beverage, Don Dulle, Whitefish Credit Union, Charlie Abel, The Toggery, Trek Stephens, Gary Byers, Creative Sales, Universal Athletics, Dewey Michaels, Montana Coffee Traders, Kent and Joan Paulson, Mark Vammyhuis, Meg Olson, Joyce Murphy, Lonnie Collinsworth, Marty Christiansen, Ron Kuchenbrod, Julie Radkte, Cathy Bauer, Jim Hinch, Winter Carnival King, Rick Donahue, Derek Schulz, Reed Kuennen, Barb Mansfield, Tom Bertelson, Irv Heitz, Katherine Trieweiler and Ginny Bennett.