ALBANY, Mo. — Eight “Seat Belt Sisters!” fashioned their own pink T-shirts to help preach safety awareness to their classmates.

The Albany High School group and students at Gallatin High School were honored Thursday by the Missouri Department of Transportation and several other organizations as regional leaders in promoting the importance of seat belts. The goal of “Battle of the Belt” is to reduce the number of motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities among high school students. A number of area schools competed in the program.

Albany High School won the District 1 MoDOT award for most improved usage, recording a 127.27 percent increase in seat-belt use after the educational campaign ended for the current academic year.

To Kate Bridges and her fellow seniors, the lessons had an impact. The girls designed their own shirts that read “Buckle Up” on the front and “Seat Belt Sisters!” on the reverse.

“It wasn’t typical boring facts,” she said. “We had to tell it in a creative way.”

The group started off by stationing themselves in the school’s parking lot and tallying the number of seat-belt users, even checking elementary students for compliance. They also conducted random checks and stenciled reminders on the lot with “Arrive Alive.” A radio jingle delivered the message over the airwaves.

The Seat Belt Sisters have decided to split their $250 award between the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life and Camp Quality Northwest Missouri.

Gallatin received the highest overall usage award for posting a 94.44 percent rate of seat belt use.

Senior Taylor Porter said a student-coordinated docudrama that depicted a mock crash with no seat belts influenced its intended audience.

The $250 in proceeds may be used to help the students defray the costs of materials used in their seat belt campaign, said high school counselor Joyce Cox. The Missouri State Highway Patrol contributed to the program.

Ray Scherer can be reached

at rscherer@npgco.com.