Sign up to hold a Brain Injury Awareness Month bike helmet giveaway

Act quickly; time is running out

posted 09.16.10

The Texas Medical Association invites all TMA/TAFP-member family physicians to hold a Hard Hats for Little Heads bicycle helmet giveaway in October for Brain Injury Awareness Month. Orders are coming in, and physicians still have time to add an event to the list. TMA needs more events to make their goal of 25 for Brain Injury Awareness Month.

If you are already planning an event, but haven’t requested a packet, contact Tammy Wishard at TMA. Or give her a call if you’re thinking about an event but need ideas. TMA recommends a month to plan an event, so you must act quickly.

Events in October get bonus publicity from TMA as they send a statewide news advisory listing each event and encouraging helmet use. Be sure TMA knows about your event by as soon as possible, so they can list it in the advisory. TMA staff will need the date, time, location, event sponsor, and a local contact with phone number (in case the media wants more details about your event).

For a successful event, TMA recommends you:

• Take the time to fit each helmet on a child. That way, he or she can go home and ride safely. Hard Hats offers a DVD to train volunteers how to fit helmets.
• Ensure a physician participates in your event by talking about helmet safety and/or fitting helmets. If you don’t have a doctor at your event, please show the DVD that features a TMA physician.
• Prepare a spokesperson to speak with the media at your event.
• Assign a photographer to take photos at your event. (Be sure to get photo releases signed by the parents of children you photograph.)

For more information and to sign up, contact Tammy Wishard, TMA’s outreach coordinator, at (512) 370-1470 or tammy.wishard@texmed.org.