September 18, 2008

 News Release

Superheroes to Teach TISD Students to “Blast the Trash”

The Texas Department of Transportation's "Litter Force" will make two appearances in Tyler ISD promoting the “Don't Mess With Texas” litter campaign to school children and encouraging them not to litter. The Litter Force will be in action on Friday, September 19, 2008, at 9:00 a.m. at Orr Elementary School, located at 3001 Orr Drive, and at 12:35 p.m. at Griffin Elementary School, located at 3000 North Border, in Tyler.  The Force will be in action again between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Saturday at the Tyler Boys & Girls Club “Day for Kids” at Bergfeld Park in Tyler.

The Litter Force superheroes, Hawk, Bolt, Ultra and K-900, and their trash adversaries, called Evil Trash, will make their way to more than 25 Texas schools during a three-month tour this fall.

New research of Texas first-graders in five pilot school districts indicates the Litter Force team makes a difference. A telling research statistic shows 68 percent of first-graders exposed to the Litter Force and its messages have told someone in their family not to litter (compared to 55 percent in a similar study conducted in May 2007 among students with no prior exposure to the program). Additionally, 88 percent of students in the pilot markets know what litter is (compared to 78 percent in the previous study). Don't Mess with Texas has been educating Texans about litter prevention since 1986.

For more information, visit www.dontmesswithtexas.org.

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