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

posted 01.24.12

Brain Injury Awareness Month, previously held in October, has moved to March. Physicians can use this event to encourage youth helmet safety during cycling, skating, and other wheeled activities through TMA’s Hard Hats for Little Heads initiative. Because of TAFP’s partnership with TMA, physicians who are members of both organizations can receive up to 100 helmets at no charge. TMA also provides educational materials in English and Spanish, including a video showing how to properly fit a helmet.

Physicians sign up through TMA and distribute the helmets through school safety demonstrations, community fair booths, or other events. Here are three additional ideas to participate:

• Give a free helmet to children at their well-check appointment to encourage them to use it during wheeled activities.
• Hold a weekly and/or monthly drawing for free bicycle helmets, especially during Brain Injury Awareness Month in March.
• Plan a larger-scale giveaway in your community, at a health fair or community/sports event that children will attend.

Start planning your 2012 event now by contacting Tammy Wishard, TMA’s outreach coordinator, at (512) 370-1470 or tammy.wishard@texmed.org. Or find more information at www.texmed.org/hardhats. Be sure to tell Tammy that you are a TAFP member to get the full benefit.

Hard Hats for Little Heads is made possible through a grant from TMA Foundation thanks to top donors — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Prudential, and an anonymous foundation — and gifts from physicians and their families. TAFP’s participation in the Hard Hats program is made possible in part by a grant from the AAFP Foundation’s Family Medicine Philanthropic Consortium.