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Guest Drive: Cathy McCormick of OnStar
Jun 24 2009 by Kristin Varela
Cathy McCormick raised two kids while managing a busy 911 call center in suburban Detroit. Today, she works at OnStar where she teaches children how to use the system. It’s one of Cathy’s many passions.
OnStar has paired up with the Cub Scouts and SafeKids, a global network of organizations on a mission to prevent accidental childhood injuries, to offer an in-person OnStar demonstration. Scouts can press the OnStar button and communicate directly with operators before earning a vehicle safety badge. Vehicle safety and the basics of OnStar operations are also communicated to young children through OnStar’s subscriber magazine, complete with coloring pages.
The result has been “so many amazing stories,” Cathy says. “Last year, a 4-year-old climbed out of her car seat when her mother was having a seizure, and she pushed the OnStar button for help. We want more children to understand that OnStar is here to help.”
OnStar advisers are trained to communicate with children. They know to call kids by name and recognize that a child might be more fearful than an adult in an emergency situation. An OnStar adviser will talk one-on-one to the child and reassure her that help is on the way. Using GPS technology, OnStar can pinpoint the exact location of the car rather than needing a child — or anyone else in the car — to describe the location if help is needed.
Cathy works closely with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, law enforcement agencies that issue Amber Alerts and poison control centers, all aimed to help children in emergency situations. With such a focus on vehicular safety for kids, we thought Cathy would be the perfect person for a Guest Drive.
1) How old are your children?
I have two college-age kids.
2) What’s your current mom-mobile?
I drive a Pontiac G8. My kids love my car now. They view it as a sports car with a big engine. It’s bright red, so they love that. When they were little I drove a Blazer-sized SUV, so I could fit all of their softball and wrestling equipment in it.
3) What features, if taken away, would make your life in the car less happy/peaceful?
OnStar, obviously, followed by my XM Satellite Radio. I don’t have a navigation system in the car, so I’m very reliant on OnStar’s turn-by-turn directions.
4) What kind of terrible mess has occurred in your car? What fixed it (or what didn’t), and do you have any suggestions for our readers?
We were always traveling to and from our cabin with our pets, which got carsick. It was bad. I’d rather just forget those days.
5) What are your hopes, if any, for the future of the automotive industry as a whole?
I would hope they would adopt some type of OnStar-like system industry-wide, so everyone can be protected in their vehicles at all times. I’d like to see more green technology and advanced propulsion to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. I’d hate to see the industry die out. It gives us freedom to travel and keep in touch with friends and family in other places. We don’t have much mass transit here in the U.S., so automobiles as a whole allow us to life a fulfilling life.
