Mary Frances Braslow, program administrator for the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, had no idea who was escorting her across Madison Avenue in the crosswalk in front of the College of Pharmacy Building this morning. Not surprising, because her escort was wearing a black-and-white-striped zebra suit and dancing as he guided her across the busy street.
It was all fun with a very serious message. The person in the zebra suit was UTHSC Campus Police Chief Anthony Berryhill, and he was the centerpiece of a collaboration between the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC) designed to increase awareness of pedestrian safety in Memphis.
Called Crosswalk Zebras Memphis, the campaign is an MMDC event inspired by Bolivia’s Cebritas program, which deploys citizens dressed in zebra suits representative of the stripes of a crosswalk, to busy streets to draw attention to pedestrians crossing the streets. MMDC has hosted two Crosswalk Zebras events in 2023, reaching more than 150 pedestrians and 23,000 people via social media and videos from the events.
Read more at our UTHSC news site.