[Insert Date]

The Honorable [Insert Name of Senator or Representative. Find your Senator and Representatives at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov]
U.S. [Insert Senate or House of Representatives]
[Insert Address]
Washington, DC 20515

Dear [Insert Senator or Representative]:

As a constituent and member of the Home Safety Council’s Expert Network I’m writing to you to express my support for The Great Safety AdventureÒ(GSA), an award-winning traveling youth safety education program. Every year unintentional home injuries send almost 3 million children to hospital emergency rooms for treatment and kill nearly 2,000 children in America. In order to prevent these injuries and save lives, Americans need to be educated on ways to make their homes safer.

According to the Home Safety Council’s State of Home Safety in AmericaTM report, far too many Americans endure unintentional injuries and deaths in their homes, many of them sustained by children:

• Unintentional injuries are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.
• Unintentional injuries in the home result in nearly 20,000 deaths and 21 million medical visits.
• Unintentional home injuries cost nearly $387 billion each year and account for an estimated 10 percent of all visits to emergency rooms.

We know that the top five childhood injury areas—fire/burns, falls, choking, poisoning and drowning—can be prevented through education and awareness. Since its inception in 1999, the GSA’s safety message has reached nearly 750,000 children, teachers and caregivers nationwide. The Home Safety Council spends $2.1 annually to operate and staff the GSA and federal funding will allow the GSA to deliver its unintentional home injury classroom lessons to more communities across the country.

I respectfully request that you consider providing $1 million in federal funding for the Great Safety Adventure. Last year the GSA was fortunate to receive a federal earmark under the FY 2005 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill under the CDC's Public Health Improvement account.

Thank you for your consideration of this request. Please join me in supporting the Home Safety Council in educating Americans how to be safer in and around their homes.

Sincerely-

[Insert Name]
[Insert Title]