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"  Loren Vaillancourt, a contestant in the recent Miss America pageant, is running on a platform that&amp;#039;s close to her heart. Crowned Miss South Dakota in 2010, the 21-year-old pageant winner is speaking out about the dangers of distracted driving. Loren&amp;#039;s brother, Kelson, passed away in May of 2009 because of a distracted driver. Kelson&amp;#039;s friend, James, was driving the car and became distracted at a highway intersection. He ended up colliding with another vehicle, and they both were killed. Besides this personal tragedy motivating her campaign, Loren hopes to draw attention to her home state&amp;#039;s problem with distracted driving. &amp;quot;South Dakota teen drivers were ranked worst in the nation in May of 2010,&amp;quot; Vaillancourt said. &amp;quot;So this is a big deal in South Dakota, but it&amp;#039;s a national problem too.&amp;quot; According to a recent State Farm survey, 57 percent of teens admit to reading or sending text messages while driving. Loren has been traveling around South Dakota, speaking to high school students about the risks involved with distracted driving. Inspired by her campaign, State Farm has partnered with Vaillancourt, and has agreed to donate $1 for every &amp;quot;like&amp;quot; her videos and blog posts receive on Facebook. Two South Dakota schools with the best anti-distracted driving programs will receive grants from State Farm worth the amount of &amp;quot;likes&amp;quot; that are clicked. &amp;quot;Likes&amp;quot; have been tracked since January 4th, and will continue until January 15th, the day of the Miss America pageant. Loren&amp;#039;s video diary is on the  State Farm Teen Driver Safety Facebook page , as well as on the  Miss South Dakota Facebook page . Her video blogs document her personal experience with distracted driving as well as discourage teens from texting while driving. Her wall posts include statistics about distracted teen drivers and reminders about the grant program. For more information about the Teen Driver Safety grant, check out www.statefarm.com/southdakota.  What are YOU doing to stop distracted driving? Tell us below.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/a13280/stop-distracted-driving/>