Alliance for Safe Kids Raise Awareness about Underage Drinking

The following was submitted by The Alliance for Safe Kids: ASK completes the first Yorktown Sticker Shock Campaign.

The campaign consisted of teams of young people, accompanied by an adult chaperone, placing stickers on multi-packs of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine coolers, etc.) at participating stores. The stickers read, “Hey You!! It is ILLEGAL to provide alcohol for people under 21!”

This year’s participating stores were: , , Mobil Mart.

The purpose of Sticker Shock is to raise public awareness about the minimum drinking age law by placing stickers on multi-packs of beer, wine coolers and any other alcohol products that appeal to underage drinkers. The stores are also encouraged to place signs, identical to the stickers, on the windows of refrigerators containing alcohol. The goal of this project is to discourage adults and older peers (those who are 21 or over) from providing alcohol to minors.

“Limiting youth access to alcohol is a proven effective strategy to reduce underage drinking”, said LisaTomeny, ASK Executive Director, “Activities such as Sticker Shock help reduce youth access to alcoholand also show that teens can be the driving force behind this movement.”

Consider these facts:

• Traffic crashes are the number one killer of teens and over one third of teen traffic deaths are alcohol-related.

• Youth who start drinking before age 15, compared to those who wait until age 21, were:- 12 times more likely to be unintentionally inured while under the influence of alcohol- 7 times more likely to be in a motor vehicle crash after drinking- 10 times more likely to have been in a physical fight after drinking

Preventing underage drinking is everyone’s responsibility, including parents, teens, public health agencies, law enforcement, and retail establishments.
About the Alliance for Safe Kids (ASK).

The Alliance for Safe Kids (ASK) is a Yorktown non-profit organization founded in 2002 and incorporate din 2006 as a charitable organization. ASK is a coalition representing all sectors of our community working together to provide a safety net for the youth and families in the community. Their mission is to promote awareness and prevention of substance use/abuse and other destructive behaviors damaging to our youth.

ASK is a collaboration within the community – parents, teens, educators, law enforcement, government, medical professionals, businesses, faith leaders, civic groups – aimed at providing youth with the information and skills needed to make healthy decisions while emphasizing the need for families to protect and nurture their children by getting informed and getting involved.