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Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Whitney Jones, 17, speaks to students Thursday at Huddleston Elementary School in Bedford County as part of the Buckle Up, Drive Safely campaign.

Zack Divers said he can't remember a year that Staunton River High School hasn't lost a student in some kind of automobile wreck.

Last year, the Bedford County school didn't have a Youth of Virginia Speak Out club, but this year, Divers and his fellow club members want to keep classmates safe.

Last fall, Divers and other club members watched as students drove to and from school one week. About 80 percent of the teens were wearing their seat belts. After a week of campaigning, YOVASO counted again and the percentage had risen to 94.

That helped the school earn a tailgate party, complete with Domino's pizza and music with a K92 deejay, from the statewide Roanoke-based YOVASO organization. The school loved the party, but for club members, the improvement was about more than just pizza.

"If we have our kids buckled up, teen fatalities go down," Divers said. "And if we save one life, it's all worth it."

YOVASO's most recent campaign is called Buckle Up, Drive Sober, and the organization is encouraging individual clubs to be creative in spreading the word, said Cpl. David Mays, the Bedford County Sheriff's Office student resource officer and YOVASO club sponsor at Staunton River High School.

Last week, the five club members went to four elementary schools to teach the youngest Bedford students about car safety.

Whitney Jones, the club's only 11th-grader and the vice president, designed a Power Point presentation for her peers and tweaked it to "Buckle Up, Drive Safely" for the younger students -- an age group that she and secretary Sarah Zimmerman said is key.

"If they learn now, then it makes an impact," said Zimmerman, a 12th-grader.

Jones explained that if young people start buckling up now, it will become a habit.

"That's what we really want to get in their heads," she said. "Just to start it and make it a habit."

Christopher Martin, 6, helped out during a presentation at Huddleston Elementary School on Thursday by demonstrating the proper way to sit on a school bus -- back to seat back and bottom to seat bottom. When asked what he learned, he knew exactly what to say.

"Buckle up safely," the first-grader said in a no-nonsense tone. "You don't want to get hurt."

In addition to the presentations, the club plans to hold a student/faculty dodgeball game Friday to raise awareness as well as funds. They are also co-hosting a Bedford/Roanoke County joint traffic checkpoint Saturday.

During that afternoon, the William Byrd and Staunton River YOVASO clubs will perform seat belt surveys while the Roanoke County police and the Bedford County Sheriff's Office complete license checks.

It's a different approach, but it's working, and these students know what they're working for -- YOVASO club of the year.

"We're hoping for it, pushing for it," Divers said.

YOVASO program coordinator Mary King doesn't doubt they can do it.

"They're a super club," she said of the Staunton River students. "They're definitely in the running."