New Brunswick, NJ –The New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety and the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers are teaming up with Rutgers University to keep fans safe at home football games this season.

A HERO Campaign tent will be located at the main gate beginning at this Saturday’s Connecticut game, registering non-drinking designated drivers to provide safe rides home for friends and family. The HERO Campaign is a non-profit organization active throughout New Jersey and a number of neighboring states, established in memory of Navy Ensign John R. Elliott of Egg Harbor Township. Elliott was killed by a drunken driver in July, 2000 two months after graduating from the United States Naval Academy.

HERO Campaign television commercials narrated by Ensign Elliott’s sister Jennifer will be shown on the stadium screen prior to each game, asking fans to “Be a HERO. Be a Designated Driver.”

In addition to the designated driver registrations program, the State Division of Highway Safety also will promote “Click it or Ticket” and other highway safety messages through the Rutgers partnership, which will continue at home basketball games this season.

The HERO Campaign also promotes its designated driver safety message through the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the State Police, local police departments, the military, schools, colleges, and bars and taverns throughout New Jersey and five other neighboring states.

“We are looking forward to bringing this important public safety initiative to Rutgers with the HERO Campaign,” noted Gary Poedubicky, director of the Division of Highway Traffic safety. “This will enable us to reach tens of thousands of Rutgers fans and help keep them and all our motorists safe.”

Bill Elliott, John Elliott’s father and the founder of the HERO Campaign, noted that the organization is not against drinking, just drinking and driving: “We believe people can have a good time and still be safe if they have a designated driver,” he said, noting that the campaign seeks to register one million designated drivers nationally.

The HERO Campaign is also active at the New York Giants Metlife stadium, the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park, and The New England Patriots’ Gillette stadium in Foxboro, Mass. For more information on how to participate in the HERO, logon to https://www.herocampaign.org