Operation Impact: More than Just a Program

What does February 11, 2007 mean to you?

For some, it was a normal, cold winter day.

For others, everything changed.

Just after 2 a.m., a car crashed into an electric pole on Route 31 near Route 34 near downtown Oswego. Five Oswego High School students died.

The crash impacted the entire Oswego community – from family and friends of the victims and injured, to first responders to students in Oswego 308.

Six months after the crash two Oswego Rotary Club members – Brian Caldwell of AutoSmart, Inc. and Jennifer Jones-Sinnott of Brian Feltes and Associates, wanted to do something to prevent a tragedy like that from ever occurring again.

Since 2008 Operation Impact has been running in the Oswego 308 high schools, teaching over 8,000 students in driver’s education programs, said Caldwell.

“We’ve seen the difference in a 21 percent reduction of teen driving accidents,” said Caldwell. “That’s a huge improvement in our community.”

Operation Impact has professionals from different fields – from police and fire first responders to agents from insurance companies to auto groups – talk to students about the realities of driving and what an accident can mean. 

But Operation Impact didn’t want to just stop at Oswego.

On May 20 the group, with assistance from the Oswego Police and Fire departments, shot a re-created scene of the accident, with firsthand accounts from Sergeant Dan Kipper, who was the first emergency responder on scene as well as Oswego’s Police Chief Dwight Baird.

Kipper was awarded the Paul Harris award, the highest honor a non-Rotarian can receive for his “Service Above Self,” and his dedication to Operation Impact.

The video, above, was shown to the Village of Oswego on June  3 and will be traveling much farther to make an impact elsewhere.

“We’ve had 12 communities ask to implement this,” said Caldwell. “Our goal is to implement this and carry out Operation Impact nationwide.”

“I look forward to seeing this have an impact in other communities,” said Kipper.
 
Those who would like to help support Operation Impact can visit the Rotary Club website for information.

Editor's Note: I would just like to say that I personally am very impressed and touched by Operation Impact. As a senior at OHS when this happened, the community came together in ways that I had never quite seen before. To my friend and teammate and to the other four students that lost their lives that February morning, I will never forget.