Share 10 tips for keeping your family safe on the road for a $30 Amazon gift card

THANK YOU EVERYONE! We have reached our quota of 100 posts. We are reviewing current submissions to make sure they are qualified. You will be notified via email if you were one of the qualifying participants. Thanks for participating! Even if you are not in the first 100 submissions, you are welcome to continue submitting your posts, and we will share all of them with the team at Safelite.

With summer around the corner, families are getting ready for lots of car travel and vacations. Whether heading to the grandparents’ house or camping in the woods, summertime is full of fun trips and activities.

Some of our fondest family memories are created during family road trips. Playing games, singing songs, and sightseeing help the drive go by faster. But before we head out on these adventures and spend a lot of time in the car, it’s important to consider the role your windshield plays in safe driving.

Did you know that most automotive safety experts rank the windshield as a vehicle’s third most important safety component behind seatbelts and airbags? A properly installed windshield ensures the passenger-side airbag deploys properly and helps maintain a vehicle’s structural integrity in the event of a rollover. An improperly installed windshield could pop out during an accident. Without the windshield, a passenger can be thrown from the vehicle or struck by its collapsing roof - greatly increasing the chance of injury or death.

To that end, we’ve teamed up with Safelite AutoGlass for a new call for blog submissions. We want you to share 10 tips for keeping your family safe on the road. Please include 2-3 of the tips Safelite provided below in your post. What should you do when you see chips in your windshield? What things can go wrong when you have auto glass damage? Safelite has provided some helpful safety tips for you below. We can’t wait for you to share these tips, along with your own, with your readers for keeping your family safe on the road.

How it works:
We are looking for 100 high-quality, creative, original and authentic submissions. Create an original post on your blog, in 400 words or more (using your own words), about 10 tips for keeping your family safe on the road. To get you started, you can get some great ideas from our friends at Safelite below! Include a thoughtful introduction, original content within the body of your post, and a conclusion. Check your spelling and grammar. You must also include the disclosure statement that is below in your post and install the campaign widget in the sidebar of your blog. Then follow the rest of the requirements below. We will review every post and select the first 100 qualifying submissions to receive a $30 Amazon gift card!

Highlights from your posts, tweets and tips will be collected and featured on http://safelite.socialmoms.com, and distributed across the web for all to see. The blogging program starts on June 1, 2011 and the submission window closes at 11:59pm PST on June 30, 2011. We will contact the qualifying bloggers on or about July 7, 2011. Full terms and conditions are posted for your review at http://safelite.socialmoms.com/terms.

Rewards for Participating:
The first 100 qualifying participants will receive a $30 Amazon.com gift card. See Terms and Conditions

Requirements:
To participate, we ask that you:

1. Create an original blog post on your blog, in 400 words or more, sharing "10 Tips for keeping your family safe on the road." Please include a thoughtful introduction and conclusion in addition to the main body of your essay. Give it plenty of thought, and include content that your readers would like to hear about and can connect with! Short or poorly written posts will not be accepted. Copying and pasting does not count. Blank posts submitted to create a blog link on the discussion page will be disqualified. Don't copy another blogger's post or ideas. Plagiarism is grounds for immediate disqualification.

2. Participants must include the following disclosure as a footnote of their post:
“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Safelite blogging program, for a gift card worth $30. For more information on how you can participate, click here.” (make sure you link to http://safelite.socialmoms.com/about)

3. Install the campaign widget in the side bar of your blog.
Get Widget Here

4. Please include 2-3 of the following tips from Safelite AutoGlass® in addition to your own original suggestions:

Think you can ignore a chip in your windshield? Think again! The windshield provides up to 30% of your vehicles structural integrity, and a chip smaller than 6 inches (or the size of a dollar bill) can easily be repaired by filling it with a special resin.

A chip could turn into a crack at any time, often when you are least expecting it. Windshield repair is often a safe and economical alternative to a full windshield replacement.

Scheduling a windshield chip repair is easy! Companies like Safelite AutoGlass provide mobile service – wherever your car is – often within 24 hours of your initial call.

Safelite AutoGlass brings you peace of mind by emailing you a Technician Profile before your appointment, showing you a photograph and credentials of the technician coming to your home or place of business.

Forget do-it-yourself repair kits. The resin could easily shrink or yellow, lowering the quality of the repair. Safelite AutoGlass uses a patented repair process… A vacuum is created over the damaged area and the resin penetrates and fills the finest micro-cracks. The technician pulls off the vacuum changer and the UV light hardens the resin. Safelite’s resin is proven to be the strongest and longest lasting on the market.

The repair often takes just 30 minutes, and the result is barely visible and the windshield is strong again.

All Safelite repairs are backed by a national warranty and are guaranteed to pass lease turn-back and state vehicle inspections.

Some unethical companies – windshield bullies -- take advantage of the fact that insurance companies cover the cost of the repair, so they’re using it as a way to file fraudulent charges to the insurance company when there isn’t really damage. These types of scammers are show up at car washes, gas stations and even go door-to-door and pressuring you to file unnecessary claims. If you suspect damage, go to a trusted vendor who will inspect the glass before performing work.

With many insurance companies, there is no deductible for the repair.

An added benefit is that by offering repairs as an alternative to replacement, Safelite AutoGlass saves approximately 35,000 tons of CO2 during windshield production each year, enough to fill the Empire State Building approximately 19 times. In addition, it saves the number of damaged windshields being sent to the landfill by approximately 12,500 tons annually.

5. Log on to your Twitter account, www.twitter.com, and send a tweet including a link to your blog post with the hashtag #SafeliteSafe.

6. Return to www.SocialMoms.com and post a comment on this discussion page in the comments section below, including an active link to your blog post and a direct link to your Twitter tweet. (You can click on the date/time link below your tweet to get the direct link to your tweet.)

Eligibility:
No purchase required to participate. You must be a legal resident of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, have a personal blog and be a registered user of the www.socialmoms.com and www.twitter.com websites to participate and at least 18 years of age or older at time of submission. See Terms and Conditions. Please see SocialMoms FAQs for more information on blogging programs.

About Safelite AutoGlass:
Safelite AutoGlass® was founded in 1947. Throughout our more than 60 years of service, our company has grown from a single store in Wichita, Kansas, to a national auto glass provider, serving nearly 4 million customers per year.

Through industry-leading 24-hour instant scheduling, convenient in-shop or mobile service, top-of-the-line materials and SafeTech™ certified technicians, you'll find that Safelite AutoGlass offers superior customer service, value and quality.

More info: http://www.safelite.com

Follow Safelite on Twitter: @safelite

Safelite on Facebook

Tags: keeping your family safe on the road, safelite