Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: operaton snowball, sticker shock, underage drinking
Sticky Situation Kicks Off
Alcohol Awareness Month
Statewide “Sticker Shock Day” to Target Adults who Provide Alcohol to Youth
(Springfield, IL) – Operation Snowball members kicked off “Project Sticker Shock,” a youth-led initiative to change adult attitudes about selling and providing alcohol to minors at over 50 locations throughout Illinois on April 2, 2009. This public awareness campaign will take place in stores statewide this month. The project is sponsored by Operation Snowball, Inc. and the Don’t Be Sorry public education campaign to bring attention to the issue during Alcohol Awareness Month.
Local youth from individual Operation Snowball chapters are part of a movement of youth statewide working with participating stores to spread “Sticker Shock” waves across Illinois in an effort to reach adults who might be tempted to buy alcohol for youth under 21 who can’t buy it legally themselves. The florescent orange-and-black stickers and decals stand out on multi-packs of alcohol and glass refrigerator doors for all to see, and provide a strong reminder: Providing Alcohol to Minors is Illegal, Unhealthy & Unacceptable!
“This activity sends an important message we can all learn from,” says Mary Jo Peavy Davies, Operation Snowball’s program manager. “One of the unique aspects of this program is the fact that our teens are teaching the adults how to act responsibly.”
Parent Sharon Brown echoes this sentiment. “As a parent, it is comforting to know we have teens who can educate those parents who tolerate underage drinking in their home,” says Brown, the mother of a teenager. “Too often, parents condone their child’s alcohol use by saying ‘at least they weren’t doing illegal drugs,’ even though underage drinking is illegal.”
This attitude is all too common in today’s society, according to teen Sticker Shock Day participants. “One of the biggest problems I see is older people buying for younger people,” says Kaila Errett, a sophomore at Springfield Southeast High School. “This is one of the main reasons why I think Sticker Shock is such a great program!”
Adds fellow Southeast High student, junior Melissa Randolph: “Prevention is a powerful tool at our school. Anything that keeps teens away from alcohol, and stops people from buying for minors is a good idea.”
Youth leaders statewide and participating retail stores are working together to create a safer, healthier lifestyle by combating the problem of underage drinking. Alcohol has been identified as the number one drug of choice among Illinois youth, and according to local youth, one of the easiest substances to obtain. The Sticker Shock campaign hopes to cause adults to think twice before making it any easier for youth to access alcohol.
Materials for Sticker Shock Day were created through the ILCC’s public education arm—the Don’t Be Sorry program—which is partially funded through a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety. For more information about this public awareness campaign and to order the FREE Project Sticker Shock materials, please visit www.DontBeSorry.org.
Project Sticker Shock is sponsored by Operation Snowball, Inc. and the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. Operation Snowball, Inc. is a program of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association and is funded in part by the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Community Health and Prevention.
Morris and Minooka High School Youth give the thumbs up for a Sticker Shock project well done on April 2, 2009 at U.S.A. Liquors in Channahon. Channahon Community Service Officer Dan McDonald (back) is shown, left to right, with Nicole Ellison and Victoria Regalato of Minooka High School, and Katie Yard, Doug Schluntz Ashleigh Lopez, and Jeremy Murphy of Morris High School.
