Town Council Proclaims Sept. 19 'No Texting While Driving Day' in West Hartford

In between the public hearings that preceded Tuesday night's Town Council meeting, Mayor Scott Slifka read a proclamation officially affirming Sept. 19 as "No Texting While Driving Day" in West Hartford.

Almost exactly a year ago, Kingswood Oxford students to present a fundraising program they had developed called “Buckle Ur Phone,” an effort to focus on educating the public about the dangers of texting and driving.

Since then, the sister and brother team has been raising money by selling red thumb bands – because the thumb is most often used for texting – which bear the message “Buckle Ur Phone."

Their campaign has spread throughout the country, and Noa mentioned that the cast and crew members of FOX's hit TV show "Glee," which last season featured an episode about an accident caused by texting, all now have the red thumb bands, and insurance company USAA just ordered 400 of them.

Jacob said that their campaign has been posted on billboards, promoted in booths at multiple events, and Family Circle magazine recently posted about "Buckle Ur Phone" on its Facebook page.

The pair has already raised more than $4,000 by selling 6,000 of the thumb bands, has trademarked the band, and now offer them in three sizes to fit all thumbs.

For more about this campaign, visit “Buckle Ur Phone” on Facebook.

Other anti-texting while driving efforts have also been taking place throughout town, including a program AT&T sponsored at last spring and last week's at , also sponsored by AT&T.

On Tuesday night, Noa and Jacob Silverstein, as well as AT&T's Director of External & Legislative Affairs Abby Jewett, were on hand to receive the proclamation from Mayor Slifka.

"There is nothing that you can text that is possibly worth the danger to you or others," Jewett told the council.

The mayor said he expected that all council members, if they have not already done so, would sign the no texting and driving pledge at www.itcanwait.com. All drivers in town, teens and adults, are also encouraged to sign the pledge.