Postal Service Child Safety Campaign Ready for New School Year

Animated Video Urges Children to “Stay Away from the Truck”

WASHINGTON, DC —Franklin, the eagle, and his sidekick bird friend, Benny, spent their summer making public service announcements on television stations across the country, warning children to stay away from Postal Service delivery vehicles. The two animated characters are now ready to head back to school with postal employees to help teachers spread the word that injuries and death can result when children get too close to delivery vehicles.

Materials targeting pre-kindergarten through second-grade school children are being distributed nationwide this month to more than 9,000 postal facilities as part of a child safety awareness program from the Postal Service and two of its unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Rural Letter Carrier’s Association.

The materials include an animated two-minute DVD video — available in English or Spanish — featuring Franklin and Benny. The theme “Smart children stay away from the truck” is reinforced in numerous ways throughout this fast-paced, humorous video. A poster, coloring book images and stickers are also available to leave with the school children to further reinforce the message.

The dangers involving children playing near vehicles is a nationwide problem involving all types of vehicles. The Kids and Cars organization has resources available on their website at www.KidsAndCars.org to help prevent these types of accidents.

Teachers or other school officials interested in having a Postal Service employee visit a school to present the video and other materials should contact their local Postmaster.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/news.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.