THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994 TAG: 9406070141
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
DATELINE: 940608 LENGTH: Long
``So whether I attend prom or not, I promise not to use alcohol or drugs on prom night. I won't let these things mess up an important time for me and my friends. We don't need them for a good time. We need each other.
{REST} ``We can still have a good time, but we can also be safe, sober and alive.''
That's the promise that 364 out of 397 students at Windsor High School signed this year to capture a state title in Nationwide Insurance Company's ``Prom Promise'' program.
Windsor High was named Division C Grand Champion. That means that no other school the size of Windsor in the entire state did as much to promote staying sober and sane on prom night; no other school convinced more students not to drink or do drugs and drive; no other school held better, more convincing programs to promote safe driving on one of the most important nights of the year for high school students.
Local Nationwide Insurance agent Jim Auvil was at Windsor last week to congratulate the student body and to present a check for $3,500 to the Peer Facilitators, a school group that led the campaign, for their hard work.
The school got $3,000 cash for being Division C Grand Champions and an additional $500 from Nationwide for being one of three area finalists for Hampton Roads.
In addition, every Windsor student got grand champion T-shirts.
But best of all, they did get a night to remember without a single mishap from a driving standpoint. The Windsor prom was held this year in the school cafeteria on the night of April 23.
Nationwide Insurance sponsors Prom Promise to help combat drunken driving, a leading killer of today's teens. Prom Promise is a positive peer-pressure program that encourages students to sign a pledge not to use alcohol and drugs, especially on prom night.
Student committees at Windsor organized activities that demonstrated the dangers of alcohol and drug use to their peers and encouraged them to sign the pledge.
On each grade level, the participation, representing 92 percent of the student body, was incredible. In the ninth grade, 104 of 117 students signed. In the 10th grade, it was 92 of 102. Only nine students in the 11th grade failed to sign the promise. And most incredible of all, only one senior in the graduating class of 80 did not sign.
That one senior wasn't in school on the day of the signup, Peer Facilitator sponsor Adele Reynolds said.
``We worked really hard,'' said Ned Flemming, a junior and vice president of the Peers. ``We're really glad we won, and we know the pressure is on for next year.''
Convincing students to sign a promise about drink- and drug-free driving was just a beginning for the students at Windsor, however. They made announcements about the promise and what it meant over the school's public address system, plastered the school with posters, arranged for the ``Grim Reaper'' to visit the school to remind students how many young people become victims of drunk drivers every year.
``We had a week-long celebration of safe driving,'' Principal Bill Worsham said. ``We even brought in an automobile wrecked by a drunk driver.''
Even local businesses got in on the promotion of safe driving, Worsham said. Several of them donated prizes and awards to give to the students for signing the promise and for special enthusiasm.
Several parent volunteers helped throughout the week, Reynolds said. Parents JoAnne Copeland, Connie Cope and Margaret Harrell were especially helpful during the actual signing of the pledge, Reynolds said. The parents made sure that all of the students were acting seriously when they signed.
Last year, she said, several names of movie stars and celebrities cropped up on the promise forms. Organizers made certain that didn't happen this year.
The students decided to hold the prom at the school and not to take it off campus this year, Flemming said, because this will be the last year the old school is open.
The school will be demolished before the new Windsor Middle/High School opens in the fall.
The theme, he said, was ``Aladdin - A Whole New World,'' appropriate in a couple of respects. From the perspective of the seniors at Windsor High this year, it will be a whole new world. And the new school will be a new world for the students left behind.
Worsham said the school even followed through on the actual night of the prom, when local law enforcement officials were asked to check and make certain no Windsor student was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
And next year, the pressure will be on.
State champions. That's pretty exciting for a small school like Windsor.
Can they do it again?
We'll all be watching.
by CNB