By Guest Blogger Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

It's now officially Fall, so we can talk about the beautiful fall foilage and of course sports! It's the one time of year that we have so many different ones going on during the same season. Ooops, except for NHL Hockey!!!! Us football fans think things are really, really bad with the NFL's replacement refs. At least we still have a season. Between the two leagues it's looking really, really ugly! I think we need to throw some women in the mix to negotiate. Where's Hillary when we really need her?

Anyhow, we do have college teams along with our local high school and little league teams to keep us interested. Some of my friends with younger kids have been traveling all over the region to attend their kids' hockey, soccer, and volleyball games as well as tennis and swim meets. My husband and I have been there.

This season I am working with a company called Foxwood Sports that offers a marketing solution designed exclusively for high school athletics. They develop marketing programs that offer merchants an opportunity to promote their business locally while also supporting the high school athletic programs. According to Foxwood Sports, most athletic directors claim that they just don't have enough hours in the day to focus on major fundraising. This is where the marketing programs from Foxwood Sports help them to be more productive while raising funds.

We are assisting Foxwood Sports with a new marketing program that they just launched in northwest Arkansas called the NWA Buick GMC Safe Driving Program. Students from the high schools are enlisted to pass out these "Don't Text and Drive Cards" at the weekly sporting events. Participants then must agree to the accept the Don't Text and Drive pledge in order to be eligible for a chance to win one of six weekly gift cards in the Safe Driving Sweepstakes. They do this by texting a keyword provided on the card that is specific to that school to a short code. They then receive a reply message confirming that they have entered and inviting them to stay opt-ed in to the program for a chance to win the grand prize of $2,500 at the end of the season.

All participants will then receive a weekly safe driving message from the sponsor, NWA Buick GMC Dealers, along with a second message that informs them that the week's winners have been posted along with link to the online landing page that lists them. Here's the link that includes the latest winners, www.hstext.com/nwa. The program follows the guidelines issued by the Mobile Marketing Association and all participants are given the opportunity to opt-out of the text messages at any time.

This program already appears to be a win-win for both the high school athletic departments and the local merchants. Participants must be 14 years old or older to enter and local residents, so it does target high school students along with their families. If it helps to raise awareness of the texting and driving issue, then that's an added benefit as well. Here's another safe driving promotion that I came a cross that OnStar is running on their Facebook page. The  Rules of the Road Sweepstakes invites participants to create their own "Rule of the Road" and share it on their timeline.

So get out there and support some of your local high school teams while enjoying the fall season.