San Antonio, Texas — At a press conference in San Antonio on February 14, 2000, Nationwide Insurance announced its partnership, through Corazón de mi vida, with the National Latino Children's Institute to increase the use of safety seats and reduce the number of motor vehicle fatalities involving Latino children. Families from Avance and Parent/Child, Inc., as well as officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Texas Department of Safety, joined City Councilwoman Debra Guerrero as she declared Child Passenger Safety Week and asked all parents to join in the Corazón de mi vida initiative. 

One of the conference highlights was the blessing of the car seats, conducted by Father Arturo Sepeda, assistant pastor at San Fernando Cathedral. In both Spanish and English, Father Arturo asked parents to become partners with God in protecting their children by using child safety seats and learning to install them correctly. Although this activity is unusual for a press conference, it was uniquely appropriate for the Latino families. 

Nationwide's gift to NLCI made it possible for 12 cities to receive child safety seats and to conduct Corazón de mi vida activities, including activities during El Día de los Niños celebrations. The following programs are involved:

AVANCE, Dallas, San Antonio, and McAllen, Texas
Child to Child/Alivio Medical Center, Chicago, IL
Focus on First Graders, El Paso, Texas
KINDER Clinic/Tejas Pediatrics, Houston, Texas
LARASA, Denver, CO
Mariposa, Los Angeles, CA
Parent Child Inc., San Antonio, Texas
Plainfield Bilingual Childcare Center, Plainfield, NJ
Texas Migrant Head Start, Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Texas
Yakima Valley Farmworker Clinic, Yakima, WA