Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 12, 1995 TAG: 9506120097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DALEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"No one wants to lose a friend or a family member to a stupid accident," she said. "You think to yourself, `I don't want someone else to go through this.'''
With that in mind, Moore, 18, and other Lord Botetourt High School students threw their efforts behind Prom Promise, a program sponsored by Nationwide Insurance to keep teen-agers from drinking and driving on prom night.
Lord Botetourt finished first in the statewide Prom Promise competition. It will receive $4,500 in cash and $6,500 in prizes from businesses that sponsor the event.
Additionally, the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office chipped in $1,000 in drug forfeiture money for cash prizes in an essay contest, where students reflected on drinking and driving.
While the success of the program could be gauged by a competition, Moore prefers to use her own measuring stick.
At Lord Botetourt, a pledge not to drink and drive on prom night was signed by 909 of the school's 918 students, including Moore's kid brother, John.
"If something happened to him, I would be crushed," she said. "He's at a stage in life that he's got to choose which road he'll take."
Whatever road he chooses, Moore wants him to be sober when he gets behind the wheel. She worked to get John, 15, and his buddies to sign the pledge, even though they weren't going to the prom this year.
Stephanie Gill, 17, another member of the school's Prom Promise committee, said the competition enabled teen-agers to use peer pressure in a positive way.
"It makes people think about drinking and driving," she said. "Somewhere in the back of their mind it's always with them."
Gill said pressure such as neglect and verbal abuse at home can steer teen-agers in another direction.
"A lot of people turn to drinking to escape things at home," she said. "They don't get enough attention."
Brooke McMahan, 16, said that inattention can be deadly if drunken driving is the result.
"It would ruin the rest of my life if someone I went to school with was killed by a drunk driver," she said.
Dee Sheffer, a teacher who helps with the program, said she often thinks of a fellow student who died from a drunken-driving accident in her high school days.
Shortly after she came to Lord Botetourt in 1977, a student at the school committed suicide after being in a drunken-driving accident.
"It's really sad," she said. "It makes an impact for a while, but things get back to normal."
Life is never normal again for those who are personally affected, she said.
"The biggest thing is that it is so senseless and so unnecessary," she said. "These kids are so precious to somebody."
Jim Sledd, the school's principal for the past nine years, said the pressure against alcohol is having some success.
"In the past, we've had kids brazen enough to bring alcohol on campus," he said. "I haven't seen any of it in years."
He said children respond to the tone set by their parents.
"They are influenced by the society around them," he said. "Society has seen that things were wrong and tried to correct them."
Richard Pauley, a Nationwide agent who sponsors the Lord Botetourt program along with another agent, John Osborne, said that's what the Prom Promise program is all about.
"We're sending a message that we're not going to allow drunk driving and the carnage that surrounds it," he said. "We're saying to the kids that `we want you to live until the morning after the prom.'''
Sometimes the message works. Sometimes it doesn't. Pauley said the program will just keep plugging away.
"I know that kids are exposed to drinking," he said. "We're not going to change that overnight. We're just planting the seed."
by CNB