About Us
Our Mission
Founded to honor Mitchel’s legacy, the mission of The Kiefer Foundation is to
end distracted driving and all associated traffic deaths and injuries.
Efforts from our three pillars help support our mission.
About Mitchel Kiefer
Mitchel was an amazing young man, wise beyond his years and a bit of an old soul. We often said that Mitchel lived more in his 18 years than most people live in their entire lifetime. He was an outstanding student and a member of the Detroit Catholic Central High School State championship hockey team in 2016. Mitchel was a goalie and had the typical personality of a hockey goalie – quiet, thoughtful and a little quirky. Mitchel was also an accomplished salesman, having set the sales record for Cutco during the summer of 2016, when he sold over $52,000 worth of knives in a three week period – the annual sales award at Cutco is now known as the Mitchel Kiefer Sales Award. Mitchel had a large group of friends including his Catholic Central brothers, his family friends, his global friends from the International School of Luxembourg and his friends from Cutco – so many of which considered him their best friend.
Mitchel was in his first month at Michigan State University studying Neuroscience when we lost him – He had always been interested in the study of the mind – and I often wonder what he would be doing today. After his passing I found his dream book, which included a quote from him – “dream colossal – change someone’s life, change the world” Mitchel always dreamt of changing the world. It is our hope through the work of The Kiefer foundation that we are able to change the world in Mitchel’s honor.
A Message from Steve Kiefer
It’s every parent’s nightmare, the phone call informing you that your child has been in a serious car crash. Mine came on September 19, 2016 at 5PM. It was a frantic call from my daughter Julianna telling me I needed to come home – Something terrible happened to Mitchel. When I arrived at the house, there was a police officer, waiting to tell me that Mitchel had been killed on I-96 while heading to Michigan State University on Monday morning – I literally collapsed upon hearing the news.
It was quickly determined that Mitchel was killed by a young lady who was on Snapchat when she hit Mitchel’s car at 82 mph. The following minutes, hours and days were filled with tears, mourning, and sometimes denial that this could not be real and could not happen to our family.
On the day following the crash, I spent a few hours at one of Mitchel‘s favorite places, a disc golf course in Northville, Michigan with his sisters Julianna and Alexa, telling stories about Mitchel and trying to appreciate the place that he had visited so many times in the previous years.
Mitchel always dreamt of changing the world and we decided that we needed to do something to change the world in Mitchel’s honor. We established The Kiefer foundation with a vision of ending distracted driving and all associated crashes and deaths.
Steve Kiefer
Board of Directors
Steve Kiefer
Blake Kiefer
Mark Knoth
Jamie Mistry
Rob Fisher
William Hotchkiss
Foundation History
Accomplishments
- Awareness
- Policy
- Technology
Survive the Drive
Driving is risky business. Only cancer, heart attacks, and strokes cause more unintentional deaths among the general population. In this book, Tom Dingus, one of the foremost authorities on driving safety, tells you how to reduce your risk of accident while on the road. Dingus directs the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), which is home to the largest group of driving safety researchers in the world. In Survive the Drive he brings together decades of transportation safety research with personal anecdotes from his own time behind the wheel to create an entertaining guide that gives you all of the information you need to keep yourself and those around you safe on the road.