Aunt continues effort to remember nephew through campaign against distracted driving in Schuylkill County

Sep. 19—POTTSVILLE — Lori A. Schafer Guzick can't forget her nephew David J. Guzick.

It's been 10 years since he passed, and Guzick continues to share his story and spread awareness about distracted driving.

David died in March 2013 at age 24 after sustaining severe injuries in an accident. A distracted driver, allegedly texting, pushed another vehicle into David's traffic lane.

What once existed to remember David and "make the holidays easier for my sister-in-law" turned into a yearly tradition. Guzick conducted "about 100" distracted driving presentations for organizations and schools across several counties in the decade since.

"Anywhere anybody wants me to go, I'll go," said Guzick, an attorney with Williamson, Friedberg & Jones, Pottsville. "If I can hit two or three kids in a room who are listening to me, it's worth the trip."

In the presentations, Guzick said she encourages young drivers to model good behavior in a car, noting "kids learn from somewhere, right?"

Guzick said she thinks this message is more important today than ever because distracted driving is more normalized. Guzick compared it to the ample education against drunk driving and the preconceived notion that "they're bad people, they do bad things."

"Now you have this whole body of people who, they're multitaskers at work," Guzick said. "They're stressed. They're trying to do a million things at once, and in order to accommodate all those demands, they're using their phone in the car."

For the past five years, Tara DeStefano, Highway Safety Network coordinator, has joined Guzick in distracted driving presentations. DeStefano said she also feels that distracted driving messages haven't been "hammered home" as much as those against drunk driving.

DeStefano began presenting with Guzick in 2018 and first saw Guzick share David's story in the Pottsville Area High School auditorium — David's former high school. DeStefano said it was so compelling, "you could hear a pin drop that day," and that the students "hung on her every word."

It leaves a somber atmosphere every time, DeStefano said. And every time, DeStefano finds herself getting choked up.

"It's hard to explain if you've never seen it," DeStefano said. "But she pulls emotions out of you when she's presenting. ... I think it does cause people to stop and reevaluate their behaviors."

While DeStefano's portion often includes statistics and information regarding the types of distracted driving, she thinks Guzick's "powerful" story leaves an impact beyond numbers.

"I can give statistics, but she actually puts a name and a face and a family behind this," DeStefano said. "It makes it real."

Guzick's niece — David's cousin — Samantha Chivinski, echoed DeStefano's thoughts, saying, "It's meant to be an eye-opener of how serious things can get."

This year, Guzick is remembering her nephew through a calendar raffle, with proceeds benefiting Hillside SPCA.

Sold through the end of September, the calendars cost $10 for one or $25 for three and feature various gift card prizes throughout October. Every day in October, Guzick will contact raffle winners via phone and later announce it on the Guz's Charitable Project Facebook page.

"It gives me a platform to talk about distracted driving," she said. "And it's the most appropriate way, I think, to remember David ... which is important to us."

Chivinski co-founded Guz's Charitable Project with her in honor of David. Partnering with the local shelter felt like a "full circle" moment to Chivinski.

"The first year we ever did this, we partnered with Hillside SPCA," Chivinski said. "We started out with doing something in his memory ... and here we are, helping Hillside again."

Initially, Guzick wanted to remember her nephew in a different way. After excess paperwork for a nonprofit caused plans to fall through, she was left "fumbling" to create a last-minute event.

Next October, Guzick said she hopes to officially have a nonprofit organization set up to donate money to a scholarship fund in honor of David — something Chivinski said the family is "very proud of," noting that it's been "uplifting" to keep David's memory alive while benefiting the community.

For now, Guzick takes pride in knowing that she's one of the few trying to spread awareness about distracted driving locally and thinks that her nephew would be pleased.

"It's a very helpless feeling when somebody dies," she said, "... but when something like this happens, it's totally preventable, then, that feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, we just sort of channeled it into something positive."