This year he hopes to expand the program to at least two dozen schools. Billings already is doing his part. He's teaching classes now at Massabesic and Lake Region Middle School and is about to begin another at Bonny Eagle in Buxton. The classes meet once a week for nine weeks. On the final week, the students get to test-drive a snowmobile, he says, as long as their parents give permission.
Billings arrives early for each class and plasters the classroom with snowmobile safety signs.
He teaches kids the rules of the road, including what hand signals to use. They learn about snowmobile laws, how to take care of a sled, first aid and even winter survival skills. I think this is the way to go, to get to the kids. He doesn't want to scare them or any snowmobile enthusiast with accident statistics. But he does want them to see that how they drive affects whether landowners will welcome trails on their property.