Safe Communities Humboldt and Area are teaming up with SGI and the Humboldt Co-op Liquor Store on a new safety program initiative.   

The Brown Bag Safety Message Campaign is underway as students created safety messages that will appear in bags available with purchases at the Humboldt Co-op Liquor Store.  

Executive Director Amanda Hauber said the campaign began with Humboldt RCMP and local law enforcement explaining safe driving measures.   

“Depending on the age group of the students, the RCMP tailored their presentation to discuss topics such as the importance of buckling up, following the rules of the road, consequences of driving distracted or impaired, basically just raising awareness on the impact of making poor decisions and encouraging students to remind their peers and adults to make good decisions as well.”   

Following the presentation, the students made hand-drawn messages that will appear on the bags, which began to circulate this week and should be available over the next couple of months.  

Hauber noted the bags should provide a reminder of safety measures for both the creators of the bags and those who receive them.   

“The project is two-fold where it raises awareness in the community on the consequences of driving distracted or impaired or making other poor driving decisions, as well it educates the students on these topics, through RCMP presentations that we are hosting in schools.”  

St. Dominic and Muenster schools have signed up to participate in the program, but Hauber hopes that interest expands to other schools this fall.   

The students created 350-400 bags that began circulating this week at the Humboldt Co-op Liquor store and should remain in stock over the next few months.   

 In Alberta, this project has seen great success within Alberta with Wood Buffalo Safe Communities, as well as Alberta SADD. 

Hauber thanked the students for creating the bags along with the Humboldt Co-op liquor store for distributing bags and noted that if any organization is interested in sponsoring the Brown Bag program in the future, they can contact Safe Humboldt and Area.