S.N.O.W. team looks to share safety message
with young drivers

On November 1, I celebrated my nine-month anniversary with ITD. Not the longest tenure I know, but now I’m only four years and three months away from being vested, and as I’ve always said, “it’s the little victories in life that count.” In all actuality though, I’ve had quite a few triumphs in my role at ITD over the last several months. None have been more noteworthy, however, than being part of the Safely Navigate Our Winter (aka S.N.O.W.) Team. 

S.N.O.W. was developed as an outreach program geared toward young drivers, and focused on safe winter driving education.

Many ITD individuals had engaged in similar outreach activities on their own in the past, and many others wanted to do so moving forward, but most did not feel empowered, or have the information or materials necessary.

The goal of the team was to develop a multi-faceted packet that included everything from a presentation outline and ITD snow-operations facts, to fully developed classroom activities and winter-related handouts and giveaways.

On October 24, S.N.O.W. had the opportunity to present at ITD's 2018 Leadership Summit in Boise. Our team didn’t walk away with an iron award at the end of the night, but we definitely counted ourselves as winners. We had been able to present our accomplishments and share our future vision with employees from all areas of ITD.

Listen to the audio recording that kicked off the group's presentation at the summit.

Development of an outreach packet is just the beginning, and S.N.O.W. is hoping to do a large-scale push of the program next fall. In the meantime, the team is working hard to figure out how to garner funding for materials on a wide scale, how to best roll out the program statewide, how to encourage involvement from other employees of ITD, and, most importantly, how to sustain the outreach year after year.

It’s not an easy task, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this process, it’s that ITD knows how to make big things happen.

Check out the video from the team's opening pitch.

The S.N.O.W. Team would like to express their extreme gratitude to all individuals who helped them accomplish their initial goal: James Bennett and his Heavy Equipment Identification Chart Innovation Team for allowing S.N.O.W. to adapt their equipment silhouettes into an interactive game; Mike Stowell for committing the use of the ITD snowplow simulator to this educational outreach; and Clint Roney for offering his artistic talents and developing an amazing S.N.O.W. logo. Also Doug Hoskinson, Carl Horn, Walter Gallon, Amanda Regnier, NOAA’s Alex DeSmet, and the Union Pacific Railroad train for lending their Grammy-worthy vocals to the S.N.O.W. soundscape; Rik Hinton for assisting with the development of a great PowerPoint presentation; Jared Tuttle for turning a ‘Pin the Parts on the Snowplow’ idea into an incredibly fun reality as well as developing countless other graphics and images for our use; and Sue Higgins and Laura Meyer for their valued facilitation and leadership. Thanks also to AAA’s Matthew Conde for donating wonderfully informative handout materials; and, last but not least, our employees throughout the state who sent photos to the team, shared facts and stories, and offered additional support and encouragement throughout the process.
 
*If you’re interested in becoming part of the S.N.O.W. team, or would like further information on presentation materials, please email Megan Sausser at megan.sausser@itd.idaho.gov.

Review the presentation materials here.

  

Published 11-09-18