Blake Honaker

As it celebrates its 40^th anniversary, Safety Town is helping the Norman community in ways its founders never could have envisioned.

“We have noticed that children are now playing backseat drivers, telling their parents to get off their phones or telling them not to speed up through a yellow light,” Officer Thomas Zermeno said about graduates of the summer program that teaches 5- and 6-year-olds basic rules of the road.

Two-plus years after a racist SAE fraternity chant rocked OU, two Sooner football players are doing their part to make sure the lessons their team learned aren’t forgotten as they enter their senior years.

“The fight is never over with,” said safety Steven Parker, who had just finished his freshman year when the incident occurred in March 2015.

One morning, 18-year-old Blake Honaker was sitting in his bedroom in Frisco, Texas, like any other day, until he got an e-mail notification. The notification gave him the news that he was accepted to OU Pride., The University of Oklahoma’s marching band.

“One of the best marching bands in the country,” said Blake. This was easily one of Blake’s happiest and proudest moments.