SASKATOON – Hundreds of names are scrawled in black, red, blue and purple ink covering the 150 banners hanging around a Saskatoon hotel. They all proclaim the signers are against drinking and driving.
The 1,100 delegates at a conference of Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving represent 25,000 young people from high schools across the country. They heard the message that drinking and driving don’t mix. They also learned techniques to get other teenagers to join their campaign.
“It’s about awareness. It really hits home,” said Vanessa Wall of Brandon, Man.
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Her high school friends Stacey Allum and Julie Clelland chime in with similar refrains.
“It’s so personal with the films and pictures of drunken accidents.
“There’s a lot of crying.”
Willing to stand up
The trio aren’t afraid of being called uncool by speaking out against impaired driving.
“We don’t care,” about being called nerds, said Wall. “I just tell them, ‘You guys are going to be pushing daisies when you’re 19.’ “
They are three of a group of 10 at Vincent Massey High School trying to encourage students to vote for a graduation without alcohol.
In a news release, the Students Against Drinking and Driving take credit for helping draft Saskatchewan’s new legislation that will lower the legal blood alcohol content to .04 from .06. The group also noted that since it was formed in 1986, there has been a six percent reduction in the number of young Canadians involved in impaired driving collisions.
In a conference workshop geared to adult advisers of students, Manitoba teacher Bill Gordon urged them to listen to the young people more. He said qualities of successful groups are in communicating, loving, respecting and trusting.
Gordon said rural teens have an important advantage over urban ones.
“They often have a larger number of family members to share with. If they are having trouble talking to their mother or father, there’s Uncle Mike, or the cousins to talk with.”
Gordon said there can be good as well as bad in the long bus rides to and from school for rural children. On the bus they can talk with others and find an acceptance and companionship that a city teen may not find while home alone before his working parents arrive.
In another six weeks, graduation bush parties will begin, which often involve heavy liquor consumption, and Gordon said farm parents are often caught in a dilemma. They don’t want their teenager drinking, but at least they know where their children are.
