REICH COMMUNICATIONS

What We Do: Innovation in the Classroom

Heading out to Aurora, Colorado for a quick trip to present the Innovation in the Classroom Award on behalf of The National Road Safety Foundation.  I'll be presenting the award Monday to Deputy Sheriff John Shallenberger, a school resource officer in the Tazewell County IL schools, at the national conference of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

SROs are a dedicated group of police officers who mentor young people and set good examples for them.  I'm honored to be in their midst.

 

 

 

What We Do: Getting the Teen Driver Safety Message Out...in Chicago

If you're in Chicago and watch Good Day Chicago on FOX32 WFLD-TV, yes, that was me this morning, talking about the 100 deadliest days of summer.

Here's a clip, running about 3-1/2 minutes.

 

 

A Return to the Dark Ages

 

It looks like the Supreme Court, powered by extremist Republican lawmakers, pushed us back in time, removing Constitutional freedoms for women (and men).

Time to push back before we no longer recognize our great nation.  November is only 4 months away.

What We Do: Safest Summer Ever

 

As we get into summer officially, we're continuing our efforts for The National Road Safety Foundation, getting the word out about safe driving for teens during the summer months, when teen traffic deaths spike by about 20 percent.

We're working with some partner youth organizations like SADD and FCCLA.  Here's a clip from a great live interview one of the student leaders of FCCLA, Haley Reid, did with the NBC station in Montgomery, Alabama.

We have another live spot coming up Friday with Good Day Chicago on WFLD-TV.

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My Hero...Always

What's the meaning of Juneteenth?

Congrats to friend Torrey Maldonado, a teacher and a Christopher Award-winning children's book author, who has organized, for the 2nd year, a group of black authors to talk about the meaning and significance of Juneteenth. 

Here's a story from School Library Journal about the effort.  

He's put together an impressive group of writers and it's definitely worth a read.

And here's a link to the piece in Brown Bookshelf today.

 

 

What We Do: Teen Traffic Safety

Here's another clip from our virtual media tour to promote the Safest Summer Ever campaign by The National Road Safety Foundation and SADD.

 

This clip is from CBS 17 in Raleigh NC.  It aired on the evening news Friday night.

 

Jazz Birthday -- Oliver Nelson

One of my all-time favorite jazz musicians and composers, Oliver Nelson, was born on this day in 1932.    

I first heard his music when I was new to jazz, in high school in the early '60s.  Pianist/jazz educator Dr. Billy Taylor had a show on radio in New York, which is how I stumbled across jazz.  Billy had a new record out on Capitol, backed by a big band arranged and led by Oliver Nelson.  When I bought the album, I fell in love with one of Oliver Nelson's tunes called "Stolen Moments," which is now a jazz classic.  It has a beautifully haunting melody and, over the years, some great lyrics have been written to go with the tune.  Hear it here, from his album "Blues & The Abstract Truth."

When I was in college radio, I played Oliver Nelson's tunes many times on my jazz show.  I'd always crank up the volume, sit back and enjoy it.

Nelson only lived to age 43, which was a real loss to jazz since he undoubtedly had many more tunes in his head and heart.

Happy birthday Oliver Nelson and thanks for the great tunes that live on.

 

Click here to hear him perform "Black, Brown & Beautiful."

What We Do: Safest Summer Ever

Every summer, teen car crashes and deaths spike.  An average of 9 teens die on the roads every day during the summer months. 

The National Road Safety Foundation, along with SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), is making a push to put safe driving on the minds of teens this summer, to help make this the safest summer ever.

In addition to a massive social media campaign involving tens of thousands of SADD students nationwide, we're doing a virtual media tour.  Along with my associate Michelle Anderson at The National Road Safety Foundation, we're doing remote interviews with TV stations nationwide.

Click here to see one Michelle did with a station in Lansing yesterday.  I did some in Hartford and Providence Tuesday, and I'm about to go on with the NBC station in San Antonio in a few minutes. 

We have more lined up with stations in Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo and more as we're trying to get teens -- and all drivers -- to slow down, pay attention and always buckle up.

 

Remember

What We Do: Slow Down

With the busy months of summer starting, when car travel peaks, we used the opportunity to draft an Op Ed for our client The National Road Safety Foundation, urging drivers to slow down because speed kills.  

It just appeared in daily papers in Minnesota and Connecticut, with more to come.

Here's a link... 

The Connecticut Post,May 26