FULTON – The CNY Arts Center will host a drumming workshop in collaboration with the Society for New Music on March 15 from 1 to 3 p.m. The workshop is open to everyone, and the center recommends people to bring any hand percussion instruments that they own.

Diane Jones, the main presenter of the event, is a composer, as well as a percussionist for the SU Brazilian Ensemble Samba Laranja. She also hosted a show on WCNY-FM, Central New York’s Classic Radio Station, and has performed with Mélomanie, The Relâche Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players and Flautet.

“We are honored to host Diane Jones and to have had Cheryl Wilkins-Mitchell share this wonderful opportunity with us,” said executive director Nancy Fox. “We hope everyone will seize the chance for an afternoon of drumming fun!”

The event is being held in the CNY Arts Center, located on 357 State Street. The workshop will cost a modest fee, and pre-registration is encouraged.

For additional information, please visit www.CNYArtsCenter.com or call 315-592-3373.

The University Police Department is participating in an intensive campaign to ensure that students and faculty buckle-up during their commutes. The program has been a success for the past twelve years.

Police are looking for violations on campus, although the traffic stops may be made off campus.

As part of the nation-wide ‘Buckle-Up Day And Night’ campaign, University Police will have special patrols out looking for motorists who are not wearing their seatbelts.

People not wearing a seatbelt are 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle. Assistant University Police Chief, Kevin Velzy, has been involved with university police for thirty years.

“Because we are a Police Department on a college campus, the majority of our drivers are of college age. We do have some older people, older drivers, that are employees or some people just passing through campus,” said Kevin.

According to the New York State University Police Department, Motor Vehicle accidents are the number one cause of death for those aged up to fifty-four in the United States.

It has been proven that just wearing a seatbelt reduces the risk of death or injury by fifty percent. As a matter of fact, airbags are not a substitute for seatbelts.

More than half of teens aged thirteen to nineteen and adults aged twenty to forty-four who died in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained at the time of the crash.

Men are more likely than women to be unbuckled.

“The crashes have dropped. Our compliance rate, what they also look for in these grant programs, has gone way up. When we first started our compliance rate was about seventy-five percent, which means seventy-five percent of the people that are required to wear a seatbelt in the front seat of a vehicle. Seventy-five percent of them were, and twenty-five percent were not,” said Kevin.

The compliance rate on campus currently lies at ninety-three percent.

A ticket for unrestrained motorists is fifty dollars with no points initially deducted from the license, whereas distracted driving is worth five points on the license in addition to a fine between fifty and two-hundred dollars.

According to the New York State University Police Department, unrestrained motorists involved in a crash are almost four times as likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury compared to those wearing a seatbelt.

Reported by: Kaitlyn Genari

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