Message resonates from woman’s memory

TextLess Live More grows in 5 years since fatal accident.

It has been nearly five years since a distracted driver struck and killed recent high school graduate Merritt Levitan, but her memory appears to grow stronger with every passing year.

In that time, a program founded by friends and family of Merritt has reached thousands of high school students across the country with a plea to TextLess Live More. Using various campaign strategies, the program works to spread the message that being on a cellphone while driving is a dangerous mix. Locally, the TextLess Live More campaign has been introduced at Brunswick High and Glynn Academy since as early as 2105.

Those behind the movement believe Merritt’s message has the potential to reach an even broader young-adult audience, now that TextLess Live More has joined forces with Students Against Dangerous Decisions. Anna Cheshire Levitan, Merritt’s mother and a St. Simons Island resident, spoke Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., at a national gathering of SADD.

“Our main objective is to really and honestly bring the risks of distracted driving to the attention of the kids, who are at the highest risk for this dangerous activity,” Levitan told The News on Thursday. “If we can, in honor of our daughter, reach as many kids as possible, hopefully we can save some lives. Partnering with SADD is a really positive step.”

Levitan has strong family ties to St. Simons Island and the Golden Isles but the family was living in the Boston, Mass., area when Merritt was a teenager in high school. In the summer of 2014, the 18-year-old academic

‘Driving takes full concentration.’

Anna Cheshire Levitan TextLess Live More advocate

and athletic standout had just graduated high school and was planning to attend Colgate in the fall. She joined other young adults for a cross-country bicycle ride that began on the Atlantic shores of South Carolina.

On July 3, Merritt was struck and killed along an Arkansas highway by a 22-year-old man who was trying to text and drive. The driver was charged with negligent homicide and later ordered to perform community service. The Levitan family has forgiven him, Levitan said.

Merritt’s classmates from Milton Academy in Massachusetts then rallied together with her family to form TextLess Live More. The program has distributed thousands of blue bracelets emblazoned with its slogan.

The logo also has adorned bumper stickers and cellphone stickers distributed during visits to high schools nationwide. Actor Giancarlo Esposito of the former AMC hit “Breaking Bad” joined the campaign, spreading the message through televised public service announcements.

In Merritt’s memory, more and more teens have heard the message that texting, streaming, posting, gaming and all other forms of digital distraction are perilous. Distracted driving also is illegal in Georgia, as Glynn County Police Chief John Powell can tell them.

TextLess Live More hopes to make a return visit to Glynn Academy before graduation next month, and possibly Brunswick High as well, said Levitan.

“I’m so proud of the community of Brunswick and Glynn County for really getting behind it,” Levitan said. “This year we are going to talk about the meaning of texting less and literally living more. Our whole position is social media and digital media can be a powerful positive force in our lives, but you cannot do it when you drive. Driving takes full concentration.”