January

Highlights: New Year’s Day, Super Bowl Sunday, College Bowl Games

• Display a “Don’t Drink and Drive” banner at restaurants, trauma centers, etc.

• Host a New Year’s Day brunch with non-alcoholic “mocktails.”

• Ask local newspapers to publish New Year’s resolutions regarding impaired driving.

• Conduct Operation Police Advocate Super Bowl Sobriety (PASS) with weekend saturation patrols and pre- and post-game enforcement.

• Offer a free-ride-home program for those who watch games in restaurants, bars, etc.

• Host a legislative forum in the state capital as the legislative session gets underway. Hold a seminar, reception, or other gathering for legislators and their staffs to learn more about anti-impaired driving activities.

February

Highlights: Valentine’s Day, National Child Passenger Safety Week

• Encourage students to put on skits on how impaired driving hurts others.

• Hand out hearts with anti-impaired driving messages.

• Conduct media events with PTA’s and daycare centers. Invite child safety advocates, emergency nurses, fire department personnel, etc. Tie anti-impaired driving messages with messages that children need to ride buckled up in the back seat.

• Conduct a Cops & Docs information checkpoint at daycare centers during rush hour periods.

April

Highlights: College Spring Break

• Host non-alcoholic festivities using traditional spring themes (baseball clinic, fishing derby, etc.) with student groups, local law enforcement departments, scouts, etc.

• Plan a Sober Spring pledge drive at college campuses. Develop educational programs and seminars. Have students sign pledge posters that they will not drink and drive over spring break. Buy or borrow “Fatal Vision” goggles to demonstrate impaired driving. Recruit area bars and restaurants to undergo responsible server training.

• Host car window washing service with high school students at area parking lots. Leave a flyer on clean windshields with a message such as “We washed your window so you can plainly see…drinking and driving don’t mix.” Ask a nearby amusement park to host a free or reduced-admission day for teens who participate in anti-impaired driving activities.

May

Highlights: Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day Weekend, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week

• Reach out to the Hispanic community via Spanish media to promote responsible alcohol use at Cinco de Mayo events. Have bilingual law enforcement officers and emergency doctors speak at events about impaired driving.

• Launch a “good driver” program where those observed obeying traffic laws get a coupon or prize ticket from local police. Coupons can be for restaurants, movie theaters, or stores in your area.

• Team up with local television and radio stations to announce impaired driving messages throughout the weekend.

• Expand free-ride-home programs to include Memorial Day weekend.

• Invite reporters and television crews to ride along in an ambulance or observe in an emergency department. Tie in anti-impaired driving messages.

June

Highlights: Senior Proms, Graduation Parties, Beach Week, Senior Skip Day

• Encourage students to sign pledges promising not to drive impaired or ride in a car with someone who is impaired.

• Ask parents to sign pledges not to provide alcohol to those underage and not to ignore unchaperoned or unsupervised teen parties.

• Team up with limousine companies, florists, tux rental shops, etc. to help spread sober prom messages.

• Host alcohol-free graduation night “lock-in” party with bands, videos, games, and refreshments.

• Work with law enforcement, bar and restaurant owners, beach patrols, and liquor stores to strictly enforce the minimum drinking age law.

July

Highlights: Independence Day, Summer Vacation, Summer Camp

• Encourage the media to stress the dangers of impaired driving over the Fourth of July weekend.

• Work with liquor stores to distribute red, white, and blue designated driver buttons.

• Sponsor a “Beat the Heat” pool or beach party for teenagers. Have a teen who has been an impaired driver speak to the group about the consequences of their bad judgment.

• Sponsor walk-along and bike-along events to encourage healthy summer activities.

• Team up with departments of natural resources or recreation to sponsor educational seminars and activities on safe boating, motorcycling, bicycling, etc.

August

Highlights: Summer Vacations, Back-to-School

• Have local recreation centers sponsor pool and soccer parties.

• Ask sports bars to organize or participate in a free-ride-home program for patrons watching sporting events in their establishments.

• Continue summer recreation programs that include an anti-impaired driving message.

• Gear up for back-to-school safety activities, especially those related to pedestrian and school bus safety.

• Sponsor a boating safety rodeo.

September

Highlights: Labor Day Weekend, Back-to-School

• Encourage extra law enforcement over the Labor Day weekend. Use variable message boards and other traffic signs to remind holiday travelers not to drink and drive.

• Get a local business to donate Fatal Vision goggles to the high school’s driver education program. Invite the public and the media to observe the class using the goggles to simulate impaired driving in the high school parking lot.

• Develop a “youth-and-cops” cooperative program of educational sessions and other activities (softball and basketball games, scavenger hunt, etc.). Encourage mentoring relationships between law enforcement officers and youth.

• Have police officers and reporters ride along on school buses on the first day of school. Remind high school and middle school students of the dangers and consequences of underage drinking.

• Encourage school newspapers to take editorial positions on underage alcohol issues.

October

Highlights: National Head Injury Prevention Month, Halloween

• Ask Cops & Docs to host an event in a trauma center or rehabilitation clinic. Emphasize the importance of motorcycle helmet laws. Ask those injured in impaired driving crashes to speak out.

• Have an anti-impaired driving float in the Halloween parade. Ask a local towing company to haul a crashed car in the parade and paint details of the crash on the car.

• Coordinate a Hands Off Halloween campaign. Ask alcohol vendors not to use children’s Halloween symbols when promoting alcohol to adults.

• Organize “Drug and Alcohol Free” clubs in middle and high schools. Sponsor a poster contest or talent show emphasizing these messages.

November

Highlights: Harvest Festivals, Thanksgiving

• Have student groups or scout troops host food drives to collect canned goods for needy families or the local soup kitchen. Hand out anti-impaired driving messages to those who donate.

• Team up with local television stations or film and video companies to produce holiday safe driving messages. Ask local movie theaters to play the public service announcements throughout the holiday season.

• Host an alcohol-free harvest festival at the local community center. Ask middle and high school students to entertain with skits and songs based on their anti-impaired driving activities.

• Encourage the media to emphasize anti-impaired driving messages in their traffic reports on the heavy Thanksgiving travel days (Wednesday and Sunday).

• Work with local supermarkets to host “mocktail” booths. Let shoppers sample delicious non-alcoholic drinks and give away recipe booklets. Ask the supermarkets to offer discounts or coupons for some of the ingredients.

December

Highlights: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza, New Year’s Eve, Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month

• Ask your mayor or city council to sign a proclamation declaring December 3D Prevention Month. Hold a signing ceremony and invite the media.

• Have a 3D Prevention Month poster contest in elementary, middle, and high schools. Ask local companies to donate CD’s, videos, clothing, and other popular items as prizes.

• Hold a contest for the best non-alcoholic “mocktails.” Invite the media to a taste-testing. Print the winning recipes, and ask local newspapers to publish them along with pictures of the winners.

• Decorate a “Tree of Life.” Sell ornaments that can be hung on the tree in memory of loved ones. Change one white light bulb to red each time someone is killed or injured by an impaired driver throughout the month.

• Post your 3D Prevention Month activities on the 3D Web site (http://www.3dmonth.org">www.3dmonth.org), and look for the latest information and other good ideas on the site.

• Participate in Lights on for Life Day, and ask motorists to drive with their headlights on all day to remind people about the impaired driving problem and to remember those killed by impaired drivers.

• Encourage your local law enforcement departments to participate in National Lifesavers Holiday Weekend to increase enforcement efforts against impaired drivers and motorcyclists, speeders, aggressive drivers, and others who make the roads especially unsafe at this time of year.

• Ask religious leaders in your community to incorporate anti-impaired driving messages into their holiday sermons and greetings.

• Launch or expand New Year’s Eve programs to provide a free-ride-home to those who are impaired.