SADD selfie campaign meant to curb drunk driving

Just in time for the holiday, a group of teens in Prince Albert are trying to get their peers to buck the too-common occurrence of drunk driving.

On Thursday St. Mary High School’s chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) launched its Red Ribbon Campaign.

Parkland Ambulance, Prince Albert Police, and the Prince Albert Fire Department were present as students tied red ribbons to emergency vehicles just in time for the holiday season.

“Let’s just make this an alcohol, drinking and driving-free holiday season… Let’s start to change our attitudes about it,” said Lyle Karasiuk, spokesman for Parkland Ambulance.

On top of reminding the students to always find a safe ride home, the ribbons will also make a cameo in a selfie social media campaign.

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“We hand out red ribbons to every classroom in the school and you go and take a photo on Twitter or Instagram with your red ribbon and you hashtag St. Mary High School SADD so ‘smhssadd’ and the winner for the best selfie with a ribbon gets a prize,” said one of the five SADD members, Bailey Oleksyn.

She explained the kind of struggles teens face in high school.

“There’s a lot of pressure with drinking, and drug[s], there’s lots of drugs going around Prince Albert that you can fall into.”

Oleksyn has seen people at parties “that’ll have their car keys with them and they’re drinking.”

The risk to both themselves and others isn’t worth it when there are the options of finding a designated driver, parents, or staying overnight at their friend’s place, she said.

Oleksyn isn’t afraid to act when she sees someone who may intend to drink and drive.

“I try going up to them, see if they are drinking  and I see if it’s alcohol… and if they are drinking I usually get somebody to take away their keys and to call or arrange a safe ride for them home.”

She said people respond well to SADD’s message, partially because it’s coming from St. Mary students.

 “It really helps that we’re the same age because we can relate to them.”

Oleksyn said she knows not everyone gets their message loud and clear.

 “You can’t help everyone, but if you help one student maybe that student’ll help someone else.”

Karasiuk is familiar with the difficulty of getting people to follow their message. He pointed to new, harsher drinking and driving laws.

“We’ve made penalties tougher only because people don’t get it. So if you don’t get it, the law says ‘this is the consequence.’ But flip on the human side of it. If you’re sick or injured or hurt by a drunk driver, and the human tragedy,” he explained.

Oleksyn disputes some of the false beliefs students fall into.

“Kids will go out and they think that if they have one drink and drive nothing will happen to them but as SADD we need to remind them that one drink can mean an accident and the end of your life or the end of other peoples’ lives.”

Karasiuk pointed out another one of SADD’s initiatives, called the ‘paper bag’ campaign. SADD members send paper bags to elementary school students who work on holiday-themed drawings.

“The hope is that when someone’s buying a bottle of wine or something at a local liquor store and suddenly takes that bag home. And if they… take a look at it, all of a sudden, maybe that’s their kids, maybe that’s their nephews or nieces or cousins. And all of a sudden you put a real human face to what’s the contents of the bag.”

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk