MOOSEHEART, IL - She came to speak about her "Yell and Tell" techniques to Mooseheart's elementary-aged students. But after she was done, Jean Davidson had nothing but raves to give about her first trip to Mooseheart.

"I love it," Davidson said. "I've been talking about this concept for year. I teach in the inner city of Milwaukee. Being 71 and teaching for so many years, I've seen a lot of stuff. I've always talked about a place like this - but I didn't know that any existed."

Wisconsin native Davidson is the granddaughter of Walter Davidson, one of the four founders of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle manufacturing company. She is in town to be the guest of honor at Saturday's Blessing of the Bikes at Mooseheart.

But Davidson's lifelong passion has been education. She is an author and educator who has developed curriculum for all levels of teaching at both the state and local levels in Milwaukee, WI. As an author, her historical books include Growing Up Harley-Davidson and Jean Davidson's Harley-Davidson Family Album and the children's books Riding Back In Time - On My Daddy's Harley-Davidson; My Daddy Makes the Best Motorcycle in the Whole Wide World; Color Me Harley--Let's Go For a Ride; and Fun and Games with Harley-Davidson.

Davidson's "Yell and Tell" strategy concerns ways in which children can gain the attention of an adult and help to prevent a tragedy from occurring.

Davidson's motivation came when her nephew Ryder died when he was just four years old. Ryder and some neighbor boys were playing near a ditch filled with water. Ryder and another boy fell in. A boy who witnessed the accident didn't say anything, got scared, and ran home. Another boy informed Ryder's father of the incident. The father, a fireman, pulled one boy to safety, but Ryder died.

In 18 months, Davidson has reached 30,000 people with her "Yell and Tell" talks, and that number increased by about 100 when she spoke the Mooseheart's elementary school students.

"It doesn't make any difference," Davidson said. "I've given this talk to people in shelters and they find it useful there."

Davidson herself mentioned that her message resonates wherever she gives it. The strategy is simple: See it!; Feel It!; Yell!; Tell!" Once a child has noticed something bad that is happening, and feels it isn't what should be happening, they should yell for help and find an adult to tell in order to get that help. Davidson said 13 children have used "Yell and Tell" in the last year-and-a-half to save the life of another person.

"This really fits in with what we teach at Mooseheart," Mooseheart Executive Director Scott Hart said. "We try to keep safe and provide a safe, secure living environment. But even here, even though we have a protected community, there are still things that Ms. Davidson talked about that happen that could be a danger for kids."

In one of her examples, Davidson mentioned a child who had taken a packet of matches and was about to set a Kleenex box on fire. By using "Yell and Tell," a watching child was able to alert an adult before a home fire had started.

"We need our kids to understand that things like that are a safety issue, and that is something that could happen here," Hart said. "We need the kids to know it's OK that if you see it happen and you get that feeling of anxiety and nervousness, you need to work through that and go find somebody to say that something's not right. We all get that gut feeling. But for kids at this age, they may not know what to do with that feeling."

Hart said Davidson's message resonated with Mooseheart's children because it may be useful in those times when they are not on-campus, where on a Mooseheart-related trip or visiting parents or guardians on weekends or holidays.

"Whether it's a trip to the Wisconsin Dells or to the Quarry in Batavia or on a home visit, these kids are potentially going to be confronted with those situations where someone their age or younger is not going to be doing something that's safe. They need to know how to react," Hart said.

More information on "Yell and Tell" can be found on the Internet at: <http://www.yellandtell.com>.

Mooseheart Child City & School is a 1,000-acre community and school for children and teens in need of a secure home, located just south of Batavia, IL, between Illinois Route 31 and Randall Road.

Founded in 1913, Mooseheart is supported completely through private donations - the great majority of which come from the 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, in more than 1,800 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters located throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and Bermuda. Moose International headquarters is located on the Mooseheart campus.

Since its founding, Mooseheart has operated a complete, accredited kindergarten-through-high-school academic program, plus art, music, vocational training and interscholastic sports. It is an extremely nurturing and student-tailored program, with an average student-teacher ratio of 12-1.

Mooseheart students who complete their studies with a 3.0 GPA or better (4.0=A) are eligible for up to five years of annually renewable scholarship funding, covering tuition, room and board in an amount comparable to that required for an in-state student at an Illinois public university.

Mooseheart is currently home to nearly 230 students, ranging in age from preschoolers to high school seniors. Applications for admission to Mooseheart are considered from any family whose children are, for whatever reason, lacking a stable home environment. Mooseheart boasts its own U.S. Post Office and a fully functioning branch of Fifth Third Bank.

In addition to Mooseheart, Moose International also supports Moosehaven, a 70-acre retirement community near Jacksonville, FL founded in 1922; and conducts more than $90 million worth of community service programs annually.

Founded in 1888, the Moose organization has long offered its members an opportunity to do good for others while celebrating life, with family, social, and sporting activities. For more information on the Moose organization, visit the websites at www.mooseintl.org , www.mooseheart.org, www.moosehaven.org, or call 630-966-2229.