What is a Highway Safety Break?

A Holiday Safety Break is an event conducted by REACT Teams and other organizations where you set up on the side of a major highway or other thoroughfare for the purpose of passing out free food and refreshments to motorists in an effort to prevent accidents. Accident rates are normally higher during holiday weekends because of higher travel and longer distances being traveled, leading to more tired drivers on the road.

Selecting a location

The ideal location for this activity is a "Rest Area" on the side of a major highway. Rest Areas are usually maintained and controlled by local or state governmental highway departments. Once you have located a possible location, contact the responsible agency for permission. They will probably have a list of specific rules which you will have to agree to follow. Some states have a restriction on your ability to solicit donations from the motorists visiting your event.

It is not recommended that you set up next to a restaurant or other area where there are food and drinks for sale, because they will definitely object to you giving away free food and drinks in competition with them.

One Texas REACT Team received a phone call from the State's Blind Association, following the completion of a safety break, to inform REACT that the Blind Association receives the proceeds from the soda vending machines at the rest area where REACT conducted a safety break. It seems the REACT Team had received a donation of nearly fifty (50) cases of name brand sodas in 12 oz. cans, and had passed them out by the can instead of pouring them into small cups. The revenues for the Blind Association for that holiday weekend plummeted drastically for the same period. At the next safety break, the REACT Team poured the sodas into cups and recycled the cans for additional revenues to cover the expense of conducting the event.

One subtle item to consider, is that if you choose a high visibility location on a highway leading back into your community, it will be easier to convince local business to support your event, on the grounds that once the motorists see your event and taste the business's products, the chance of that business getting a new customer does exist.

This same Team in Texas was using a new type of coffee that a local coffee service company was promoting. A motorist who owned a restaurant asked for their name, and now the coffee service company has a new customer, a local restaurant has a new coffee supplier, and the REACT Team has a guaranteed source of coffee for future safety breaks! Truly a "Win - Win" situation.

Getting your Supplies

Local merchants, such as grocery stores, donut shops, fast food restaurants, soft drink distributors, or snack distributors will often be willing to contribute merchandise or even cash to this type of event if you emphasize the safety aspect of the event. Determining how much of what types of supplies will depend upon the length of time (duration) you plan to offer this service to the motorists, and the expected number of persons who would be likely to stop at your selected location.

Don't forget to ask businesses who supply coffee to other business offices to donate. They will often supply commercial coffee makers and the coffee for your event. This type of coffee service is much easier to handle and serve than smaller personal coffee makers and large containers of coffee which you have to measure out with a scoop.

What types of supplies do you need?

• Bakery Goods (Donuts, Cookies) or other snack foods that can be ate by hand without plates or utensils. (You'll be surprised what people will eat if it's free! )
• Drinks (non-alcoholic) may range from the required COFFEE, to TEA, LEMONADE, and drink mixes, or even sodas, depending upon your sources of donations and amount of financial support. While canned soda's are more convenient, using small paper cups and dispensing the soda or other drinks in single serving quantities will stretch your supplies further.
• Sugar, Creamer, and other supporting supplies.
• Ice will be needed in large quantities if you plan to serve cold drinks of any type, or if you need to keep anything refrigerated. Arrange for Ice to be picked up at intervals during the event, even if you have to commandeer someone's deep freeze or get a business to allow the use of their freezer. Your members can start freezing ice ahead of time for use in cooling drinks and food, but it is not recommended that you use this type of ice to serve to the general public.
• Paper Products will range from paper napkins or paper towels, to cups, coffee stirrers, and trash bags.
• Coolers in which to store Ice and cold drinks.
• Coffee Makers and thermos containers to make and store drinks for serving to the public.
• Electric Generators may be needed if you do not have a local source of reliable electricity. Extension cords and multiple outlet strips will be needed for plugging any items requiring power to operate, including your radios.
• Electric Lights may be required if you plan on operating a 24 hour around the clock type of event. A typical safety break may be conducted over a three day holiday weekend for up to 72 hours continuous.
• Tarps, Tents, Awnings or other shelters may be needed if you do not have a place to set up which would be sheltered from the weather. Count on it raining at least once during the event when you least need it. Make sure you can protect your supplies from the weather, including the sun during the day. Tarps can also be used to block off view of your supplies or other items from your visitors.
• Tables and Chairs would be useful, unless you plan to sit everything on the ground or hold it in your hands all weekend.
• Insect Repellant, Ant Spray, and Sun Screen Lotions are other miscellaneous items which could be very useful depending upon your local situation. Ants always like a good feast, and nothing draws them in like sugar coated donuts and spilled sodas or sugary drinks.

Plan on setting up at least a CB base station so that you can talk with passing motorists and truck drivers to advise them of your presence. You will also most likely receive a report or two of accidents which will need relayed to the police, or of motorists stranded on the side of the highway needing assistance.

Make your plans to handle these types of calls in a prompt efficient manner. It may be that you have access to a telephone, pay or otherwise, that you can use to call 911 to report. You may have a REACT base unit standing by on another CB, GMRS, or Amateur frequency to handle your calls. For that matter, you may be able to utilize the commonly available phone patches on many Amateur 2 meter repeaters, depending upon your location.

Signs (That you can read)

Signs will be needed, not only on the highway prior to your location, but also in the rest area itself. It is standard procedure among most REACT Teams to state that all food and drinks are offered totally free of charge, but that donations are being accepted. (The later will depend upon any regulations governing the site at which you are conducting this event.) You'll need signs to identify the name of your organization and possibly a listing of your commercial supporters.

REACT International may have some sign materials available that you can obtain, but for the most part, plan on picking up some poster board and a couple of markers and have one of your more artistic members make you some. They don't have to be professionally printed to be effective, but they do need to be easily read and understood by persons coming from all walks of life. If you expect visitors who do not speak English, consider making a sign in Spanish or other languages which you reasonably may expect to serve.

If you can't read your sign from the sidewalk, neither can your visitors!

Have some publicity materials or handouts available for anyone who asks about REACT. The brochures available from REACT International, or those like the teams in Texas had printed, are ideal for this type of use. Many REACT Teams will pick up new members from the public exposure that this event will create, especially if you are on the side of the highway leading back toward your home area.

Make a visitor's sign in register out of a spiral or loose leaf three ring binder, or even a simple legal pad. Some teams use individual cards like you might find when entering a drawing. Whatever method you decide to use, make it easy and quick to fill out. The purpose of using this visitor's log is to track how many persons you have served during the event. By asking where they are coming from, or going to, you have collected information that the news media will be interested in, and that your suppliers (donors) would possibly like to know as well. It is easier to collect donations of goods and cash from local merchants if you can tell them that you expect to serve over 1000 persons, etc. during the multiple day event.

Getting Publicity

This type of event is often a bonanza for publicizing your REACT Team. Prepare news releases to send to the newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations to advise them of your activity and the hours of being open. Often times, the news media is hungry for stories on weekends, especially on a Sunday. They will send out camera crews and reporters to your site for interviews and footage. Public coverage like this may gain you new members and will definitely increase the public awareness of your REACT Team in your community. Never pass up the chance to get publicity, unless it would reflect poorly upon your team.

Make sure you have your members in REACT uniform at all times during this event to present a good public professional appearance. Try to have a Team Officer present or available on short notice to be able to talk with the news media if they come out to your site. Offer to give telephone interviews to the radio stations, or to send a representative to be on a live talk show prior to, or during the event. Motorists passing thru your area will often be listening to local radio stations and may hear you on the air.

Handling Donations

Depending upon your local regulations, you will most likely be offered donations of money from the motorists you are serving. Most travellers expect to make a small cash donation, even if they don't see a sign or container to tell them if donations are being accepted. Make arrangements for your team's treasurer to pick up the collected donations on a regular basis. Too much money kept on site is an invitation for trouble.

An empty coffee can with a slot cut in the lid is ideal for collecting donations. Glass jars are also used, but can be a two edged sword, so to speak. The coffee can with a suitable sign adhered to the front and top will be less of a temptation to be stolen than a glass container. A glass container will encourage more persons to make a donation without a single word being spoken by the REACT volunteers behind the table, but is more of a temptation for theft.

"Seed" your container in the beginning with a couple of dollar bills and an assortment of change, predominately quarters, with some dimes and nickels thrown in for good measure. The presence of cash in a donation container will prompt visitors to make a donation, and the presence of dollar bills and larger change will encourage them to make larger donations.

Place the donation container near your registration book. When they sign in, they will usually also be willing to dip into their pockets or purses at that time to make a donation. A registration book can be a legal pad or a spiral bound notebook. Print a header at the top of each page asking for their name, origin or starting point of the trip, destination (city), and how many persons were traveling with them. This type of information is very useful in determining how many persons you have served, as well as making the news media very happy. They love statistics!

Empty the donation container on a frequent basis, placing the money in a container or bank bag. Do not make a big show of removing the money in front of your visitors, nor of placing it in your pocket or other Appearances and security are very important for this matter. Good luck!

Final Notes

A properly organized safety break begins months in advance to solicit community support and donations of merchandise and cash. Don't forget to ask the corner gas station to chip in $25 in gas for your electric generator if you didn't get electricity supplied for free. Plan on a lot of ice, especially if the weather is going to be warm. Try to get it donated, but if not, always shop around for the best price. Contact the wholesalers who stock those ice machines at the grocery store or corner store. Ask a hotel or fast food restaurant if they would let you have a couple of coolers for free. If you have a company in your area who sells commercial ice machines, they probably have to throw away ice from their demonstration machines in their lobby all the time. Ask if you could have it instead.

Holiday Safety Breaks are also sometimes referred to as "Coffee Breaks". They should not be confused with the old style CB Coffee Breaks where CB'ers would gather at planned locations, sometimes a restaurant, to drink coffee and swap stories.