West Hartford Kids' Anti-Texting-While-Driving Campaign Sees Success

In less than 4 months, Olivia and Henry Krieble have handed out more than 1,000 “Stop Texting We See You” signs to area residents.

Olivia, a 12-year-old seventh grader at Kingswood Oxford, and Henry, a 10-year-old fifth grader at Aiken Elementary School, said that their signs have received rave reviews and they are now ready to take their project to the next level.

So far, the two siblings have sold their signs - designed to get people to put their phones down while driving - at fundraisers at Hall High School and Aiken Elementary School. Also, Russell Speeder’s in Avon and Olivia and Henry’s doctor have displayed the signs in their offices.

In an interview Saturday, Olivia and Henry said that they are looking to expand their venture from the hand-held variety to putting their message on signs that hang from inside car windows and magnetic signs.

In addition, Olivia and Henry have caught the attention of S&S Worldwide, which wants to put the “Stop Texting We See You!” sign in its catalog in two different forms.

First, S&S is looking to sell signs intact individually. In addition, the company is in discussions with the Kriebles about selling to teachers kits to make the signs. The kits would fuel a lesson, in which teachers would have their students assemble the signs and write what it means to get involved in their communities.

Olivia and Henry, for their part, are blown away by the attention.

“I was hoping a lot of people would see it and think about it and have it in the back of their minds,” Olivia said in an interview Saturday. “It leaves me speechless. It’s a wonderful feeling that I’ve made an impact on the community.”

And the idea may have spawned some imitators.

A 12-year-old girl in Delray Beach, FL, started her own campaign in December for her bat mizvah project that looks suspiciously like the Kriebles’. The Florida girl, according to the Sun Sentinal, “has created a red stop sign on a stick, with the words, ‘Caught Ya! Stop Texting & Driving!’”

Not that Olivia minds.

“I’m not mad,” she said. “It’s spreading the word to Florida. I’m happy that it’s spreading the word. It’s about making your community a better place. My idea is it’s about making the community safer.”