Last week I was asked why I am so passionate about SADD. I'm going to start out by saying that it's complicated. It's a long story and an emotional one, for me and my family at least. So here goes.
When I was little, my mom, younger sister and I would have movie night almost every week. We'd pull out our hide-a-bed and bring out all of our blankets and have a girls movie night in the living room. Well, at about 2 o'clock on a May 2001 morning, our phone rang, waking up the three of us. My little sister and I were super tired, so we pretended to be asleep. All of a sudden, lights were on and my mom was rushing about the house crying. She told my dad she was going up to Duluth because my older sister was in the hospital.
Katie and her two friends had been out drinking that night. They were on their way home and were almost to the one girl's house when the tires of the car caught the side of the road, causing them to lose control. This sent the car rolling and flipping into the ditch. None of them had been wearing seatbelts. The driver, who I will call I, had been ejected through the windshield. The other girl, B, was the backseat passenger, and remained in the car. Katie had been the front seat passenger and was ejected out the side window.
When the emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they found I in the road, B still in the car, and my sister in the ditch. Katie was lying face down in a puddle of water and her own vomit. She was not breathing, and had basically drowned. Katie was rushed by ambulance to the Cable Airport and life flighted to St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota. The other two girls were rushed by ambulance to Hayward Hospital. However, it wasn't long before I was in her own helicopter on her way to St. Luke's hospital in Duluth with severe head trauma.
At the time, I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was teat something bad had happened and that was mom was gone. That morning, my dad sat my little sister and I down on the couch. He told us that Katie was hurt very badly and so was I. Her friend B had broken her neck, but was going to be okay. He had us say a prayer for the three of them. In my six-year-old mind, I knew that saying a prayer under the circumstances we were under meant that the person might go to Heaven. I cried myself to sleep that night, scared for my sister.
The next day we found out that Katie was still really hurt, but that she was going to be okay. And she is. She had broken her scapula and had road rash over almost her entire left side of her body, but she healed and turned out alright. She still has pain at times, but physically, she is fine. I, on the other hand, will never be the same. Currently, she is a thirty-year-old woman with the mind of a fifth grader. She will never recover. And even though Katie is physically better, she still lives with the fact that her friend is severely handicapped, that she almost died. My mom still lives every day with that 2:00 phone ringing. Because of that night, Katie almost didn't have a 19th birthday, the accident happened two days before. I almost didn't have a sister. However, I do not look down on any of the girls. They were just three teens doing the same thing thousands of other teens were doing that same night.They were just the ones that consequence caught up with. Because of that, I have taken their accident as a sort of lesson. The pain they all went through, and are still going through, is one that I am not willing to feel. The pain that my mother feels is one that I never want her to have again. Risking my life for that little bit of fun is not worth it to me.
I have to say though, this wasn't always my exact mantra. When I was in middle school, I dreamed of the day when I would be old enough to be like the kids on TV, going to parties, getting drunk, having a good time. But then I started to realize that none of that made sense. I started to realize the toll that Katie's accident had taken. When I got to high school, I knew I wanted to be in SADD, but I never went to any of the meetings. What made me join, was a simulation SADD put on the spring of my Sophomore year. Every fifteen minutes, a tall man in a grim reaper costume goes into a class and takes a student out. The sound of the death march can be heard, and when the grim reaper takes you, you die. You are painted white, given an "obituary," and are not allowed to interact with anyone for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, all of the students are herded into the auditorium. A speaker tells a story and the "ghosts" walk onto the stage. I was a ghost, and I's sister was the speaker. I cried in the dark while she told our sisters' sotry. I tried to hide the tears while my "obituary" was read. I realized that my sister's accident was my motivation. The reason I decided not to drink was because of Katie. Listening to I's sister made me realize that I could use her story to motivate others. She was using it, why couldn't I use my side of the story to motivate?
The fall of my junior year, I joined SADD and made it my mission to try and encourage my peers to steer clear of destructive decisions. Today, I am continuing that, and I hope that this blog is showing my passion.
I am a student against destructive decisions.
I have told you my story, and I hope you can take something away from it.
I hope that you can see why being a part of SADD
is so important to me, and I hope that you can make SADD
apart of your life. You don't have to start a chapter,
but staying away from that can of beer, that hit,
encouraging your friends to do the same,
that helps.
Until next time,
make good choices, lead good lives.
It's kind of a given that SADD groups are open to high school students, but what about outside of school? Is there anyone promoting good decisions outside the walls of schools? The answer is yes. One program is called Parents Who Host Lose The Most. They are a group devoted to stopping parents from supplying alcohol to underage people. In Wisconsin alone, there are 64 coalitions, with 51 of Wisconsin's 72 counties participating in these groups. In my county, Bayfield, our group is known as the "Have You Had Enough?" Alcohol Abuse Reduction Taskforce. One cool thing about this group is that they are willing to meet with schools and try to find a solution to underage drinking. Today was one of those days. Five members of the group were willing to join our SADD group today and discussed what they do and who they are. Another interesting part of this group is that the members are all volunteering their work toward the group. There is no funding for them, they are simply meeting a need. They are also from multiple different parts of the Bayfield County system. One member is the county's DA, another is the Director of the Bayfield County Health Department, even the sheriff is involved. Also, as a part of this taskforce, they are not only aiming to lead you away from substance abuse, they are trying to work with you to figure out more effective ways to get you to understand how making the choice to drink can affect your life. While we were talking about the choices my fellow SADD members and I made when joining SADD, the sheriff said that he was proud that we had made the decision to not drink, to not let alcohol influence us. He said the sooner individuals make that decision, "the sooner you start out, the better your life will be." And I completely agree with that. Alcohol has a pattern. Choosing to drink can have any number of effects, whether immediately, or farther down the road. What I really like about the taskforce is that they are a great reinforcement to have. While we in SADD work within the school, the taskforce reaches out to the community. They help to reinforce our messages and goals and help us to reach out to the community. As the VP of my school's SADD group, I am extremely appreciative of the taskforce's willingness to come and speak to us. I think that it helped to show that our group is not alone, that there are others out there working to stop the use of alcohol and drugs before it starts, just like we are. 
Since I like to work in the present, I will start by discussing Drowsy Driving Prevention Week. According to drowsydriving.org, the recommended amount of sleep for teens is 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep. However, according to a poll they took, only 8.21% of those polled got the recommended amount of sleep. Approximately 11 million drivers admit they have had a crash or near crash because they have dozed off or were too tired. 24 hours of "sustained wakefulness" is equivalent to being legally drunk in every state. Now, as a teen, I understand how hard it can be to attain the recommended amount of sleep. It seems like teachers sometimes work together to overload you on homework. However, overworking yourself just to finish might have worse results than a low score. If you're getting too tired, just go to sleep. The math lesson can wait.
Now onto the gross stuff. Did you know that cigarettes contain many harmful poisons? They also contain Methanol, a substitute for gasoline, Acetone, nail polish remover, and Formaldehyde, a preservative for edad animals. Would you drink these things on a normal day? I hope not. If you're not going to drink them, than why would you want to inhale them? According to SADD.org, 80% of adult smokers began to smoke when they were teens. 95% of them think that they'll stop smoking by 25, but 75% of smokers who began in high school are still smoking 7 to 9 years later. According to SADD.org, the perfect looking models that try to sell us cigarettes are all a lie. Here are some examples of what cigarettes really do to your: