Meet the Payne family!

This adorable 4 year old is 42lbs and we were delighted to be able to donate a Radian XT to her (in pink!). Many thanks to Bill Craig, CPS Technician for eduating the family on the installation and usage of this seat.

Bill writes of the installation: "I appreciated Mrs. Payne’s knowledge of car seats and the installation process, which made it enjoyable and stress-free. [Her daugher] was patient girl, too. I do like the Radian and have worked with one before with a family who needed to seat three young children in a back seat of an early-90s-model sedan. The Radian was a perfect solution. In Mrs. Payne’s situation, the Radian was installed in the third row seat of a ’98 Dodge Caravan next to a baby in an infant carrier, and a child with a booster. The Radian fit like a glove.

I appreciate the Foundation sending the Payne family a new car seat, and for allowing me to help in this process."

Each seat the foundation donates costs approximately $200. We have a waiting list of ~100 families at any given time - all consisting of children who are at risk whilst they await our ability to assist. Please consider a donation to the foundation of any size you can afford, to help keep more children like the Simons' boy safe. You can donate using PayPal to the right of our blog, or you can donate using Debit/Credit/Check. Details are here. Thank you so much for your support and dedication to keeping children safe!

Davis family donation

Meet the Davis family!

This cutie is 3 years old and 53lbs - a perfect match for a Britax Regent. A top tether anchor had to be retrofitted into the family's vehicle which is a Ford. We had excellent assistance from Kelley Campos-Adams of Ford who had the part sent overnight to the family's local Ford dealership.
Many thanks to James Cameron, CPS Technician, who went above and beyond to ensure that Ms. Davis vehicle had the tether anchor fitted. He made sure that Ms. Davis understood how to correctly install and use her seat (and the height of the chest clip in these pictures - too low - has been brought to Ms. Davis attention).

Each seat the foundation donates costs approximately $200. We have a waiting list of ~100 families at any given time - all consisting of children who are at risk whilst they await our ability to assist. Please consider a donation to the foundation of any size you can afford, to help keep more children like the Simons' boy safe. You can donate using PayPal to the right of our blog, or you can donate using Debit/Credit/Check. Details are here. Thank you so much for your support and dedication to keeping children safe!

Please help the foundation win $10,000!

Would you please lend a moment of your time to vote for the foundation? We are currently in 6th place. If we win, the prize is $10,000! That would help a LOT of children get safe car seats! You can vote once per email address here: http://www.ilovechristiecookies.com/contest/form.asp Select the Kyle David Miller Foundation from the drop down list.



Thank you so much!

Rivera Family donation (and why we ask for pictures)

Meet the Rivera family!

These adorable boys received two Britax Regent seats from the foundation in July. Usually I am quick to post pictures we receive of our donated seats, but this time, I hesitated....and the reason will become clear. These two boys are 3 and 5 year old, 39.5 and 58.5lbs. We shipped their seats to a local child passenger safety technician.

Things look like they are going well here, with Dad being shown the features of the seat and we see the recline bar has been installed. Looks good so far!
Then we come to this picture. Hmmmm...something definitely NOT right here - the harness is in slots which are way too high for this child. Well, we think, sometimes we have seen techs leave the harness in the top slot if they feel that there is a danger of the harness not being moved to a higher slot when appropriate. We'll give benefit of the doubt, or at least reserve our comments at the moment.
And THIS is the final product!?! The child in the rear of the picture looks like his harness has been moved down since the picture above...that's good, but let's check out the child in the foreground. His harness is definitely one slot too high. Both harnesses are WAY too loose and the chest clips need properly placed at armpit height.
We immediately contacted the family and the technician to whom we had shipped the seat. Turns out that due to scheduling issue, the tech we had engaged (and provided all installation guidance and support) had passed the seat to the local fire department for installation. All issues on these seats as outlined above have been communicated to both the family and the technician we requested install the seat and we were assured that the corrections would immediately be made. We have been unable at this time to verify if indeed this has happened.

85% of all seats are either installed or used incorrectly. The foundation ships seats to CPSTs in order to try to combat these potential issues. This is a prime example of why the foundation requests pictures following an installation. We love to be able to share with our donors where their money is going - they can see their hard earned cash in action saving lives. The flip side to this is we also get to catch any errors of installation or misuse.

Always read your vehicle and car seat owner's manual so that you are also informed on how to correctly install and use your child restraint.