[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 13176]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          RURAL TRANSPORTATION

  Mrs. CARNAHAN. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge a group of 
courageous young men and women from Canton, MO. They are visiting the 
Nation's capital this week.
  The group's journey began more than a year ago on a two-lane road in 
northeast Missouri. Seventeen-year-old Kristin Hendrickson was killed 
on Highway 61 when her car struck another vehicle head on. A four-lane 
road with a divider might have saved her life.
  Kristin was just a few months away from graduation at Canton R-5 High 
School. Her unused prom dress hung in her closet, a reminder of how 
full of life she had been.
  Kristin's friends tried to make sense of what happened.
  Determined to make something positive out of this terrible loss, they 
started a grassroots movement: Students of Missouri Assisting Rural & 
Urban Transportation, or SMART. Their goal was to ``promote and ensure 
the safety of rural transportation needs in the State of Missouri.''
  Many of the students who created SMART graduated a few weeks later, 
but younger students carried on the work. And those who graduated 
stayed involved as advisors.
  The group developed four objectives:
  First, to educate the public on the need to improve local 
transportation;
  Second, to grow into other local districts, and then move statewide;
  Third, to lobby legislators for funding to improve rural 
transportation; and
  Fourth, to contact candidates for statewide office for their position 
on transportation, and use this information to educate the public.
  SMART has already become a powerful advocacy group in Missouri. Just 
2 months after the organization was founded, the nonpartisan group made 
a presentation at a meeting of the Missouri Highway and Transportation 
Commission. Their members have also addressed the Missouri Governor's 
Conference on Transportation. Representatives of the group have met 
personally with Missouri Governor Bob Holden and members of the 
Missouri General Assembly to encourage additional funding for rural 
transportation projects.
  But their greatest victory to date came in January when the Missouri 
Department of Transportation announced that it would upgrade more than 
10 miles of highway 61 between Canton and LaGrange to a four-lane road.
  Although the victory came too late for Kristin, there is no way to 
know how many lives it will save in the years to come. It would not 
have happened without the forceful activism of these young people.
  I am extremely proud of these young people. Not only because of what 
they accomplished, but because of what they still intend to accomplish. 
They are not yet satisfied, and we have not heard the last of them.
  The group continues to organize similar groups throughout Missouri. 
They have come to Washington this week to encourage Members of Congress 
to support highway safety and to advocate for additional federal 
resources for transportation infrastructure.
  These committed young people can teach us all a lesson about how to 
get things done. The example they have set is not just valuable for 
other young people, but also for adults who have grown cynical about 
the political process. These young leaders have shown that you can make 
a difference--through action and determination. And I intend to work 
with them to increase the Federal Government's investment in our 
Nation's highways.




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