‘Tis The Season to Prevent Impaired Driving

BE Above Members Raise Awareness about the Dangers of Drunk and Drugged Driving During National Impaired Driving Prevention Month
December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, twice as many people die in alcohol-related crashes (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). On December 12th, December 13th and December 19th, Edmunds and Hunt Middle School BE Above substance abuse prevention students traveled to Burlington restaurants and businesses to raise awareness about the increase in drunk driving crashes during the holiday season and to encourage people who consume alcohol to use designated drivers, call a cab, use a ride-sharing service like Lyft or Uber, or make other plans to avoid impaired driving.
“This was a really important project because we were telling people how to get a safe ride home and helping to prevent crashes,” said 7th grade EMS student Zoe Paxton.
Eighth grade EMS student Ella Mason especially enjoyed interacting with the restaurant staff, “My favorite part of the project was being able to educate the people who work in the restaurants. I thought it was really interesting that they were able to see the impact we were having on the community and were so supportive of our work.”
Seventh grade EMS student Tatiana Byam was also grateful for the warm and enthusiastic welcome from the restaurant staff, “It was nice to see the people who were really enthusiastic about it…seeing them really realize we were doing a good thing. There were people who right away went “yeah, we can do that!” and tried to help us figure out where to put the posters.”