Remember Alex Brown Foundation

Today, March 21st, is National Day of Awareness. R.A.B. (Remembering Alex Brown) wants to raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving. Some of you may have seen them on an episode of Extreme Home Makeover. If you didn't and haven't heard their story, I strongly urge you to visit their website: www.rememberalexbrownfoundation.org, or follow them on Facebook. Take the pledge online that you will stop texting and driving. I saw a statistic online that said while you're 4x more likely to get in an accident if you drink and drive, you are 8X more likely to get into an accident if you text and drive. There's nothing you need to text that is more important than your life or the lives of others.

Donating to their foundation is another way to help. We did so, and I got a bumper stick for my car (proudly displayed on my back window right now) and we have little thumb bands that are coming in the mail. They are like the LiveStrong bracelets, except they are little orange bands for your thumb, to remind you not to text and drive. I think ALL of us know someone with a cell phone, and at some point they have texted while driving. Maybe you are guilty of that yourself, I can admit that I used to do it. I don't anymore. I took the pledge not to, and I took that very seriously. It's hard to hear about Alex Brown and not imagine how you would feel if that was YOUR child/sister/friend.

So many people think "I've done it before, it won't happen to me, I'm good at it, I'm a good enough driver, I'm still paying attention when I'm texting real quick"...but the truth is that it's dangerous and it's a growing problem.

I hope at least one of you that reads this checks out their website, reads the story, and takes the pledge. I would obviously love ALL of you to do that, but we all go about our day thinking, "I don't have time to go watch that, I know it's a no-no already." But today is a special day. It's a day to raise awareness. Please, PLEASE take a few minutes of your time to read about this. Pass the message on to your loved ones. This could happen to any of us, and we have to do our part to make sure it doesn't.

To the Brown family, your story has touched me deeply, and I am so glad that you are doing everything you can to stop other families from going through what you went through. You changed my bad habit. My husband watched your episode and told me about it, and we made the pledge and donated that night. I've been following you on Facebook and I want you to know I am doing my part to spread your message. God bless you all.