The greatest impact against impaired driving with the simplest effort takes place at the community level where you can see some immediate results. Community and civic groups such as Kiwanis, Zonta, Lions, Elks, Rotary, Junior League, Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA), Toastmasters, scouting troops, religious organizations, and others are willing to make immediate and positive changes in the fight to stop impaired drivers from doing harm.

Individual by individual, attitudes and behaviors can be changed so everyone is playing an active role in saving lives and preventing injuries during the holiday season and all year long. When planning your group’s December meeting, choose a theme around impaired driving prevention and traffic safety. Invite speakers who can help paint a picture of why impaired driving is a community concern and an issue against which we all must take a stand. Police, victims, emergency physicians, paramedics, and offenders are ideal speakers and will share their unique perspective to make this issue real for your organization’s members. Be sure to look beyond your members to ensure everyone receives the message. Your club can form a partnership with a local high school or college to ensure students and their parents are reminded to choose safe, responsible behavior when celebrating the spirit of the season.

Ideas for 3D Prevention Month Activities

• Serve festive non-alcoholic drinks to sample and distribute recipes so members may offer them as a part of their own holiday festivities.

• Provide safe hosting tips so members having events will ensure their guests are safe to drive when the party is over.

• Call your local Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) chapter for red ribbons for your members to tie onto their cars in support of saving lives.

• Sponsor a non-alcoholic New Year’s Eve celebration with a fun theme such as “Hangover Proof Party.”

• In your group’s newsletter, create an ad encouraging members to drive safe and sober. Have the club president’s or chairperson’s column focus on traffic safety and call attention to your group’s support of National 3D Prevention Month. Insert a MADD red ribbon when mailing your newsletter.

• Encourage the school’s Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club to have a bulletin board with a zero tolerance message on it with a holiday theme. Ask the principal to incorporate similar messages during the school’s morning announcements.

• Send a letter to your local newspaper’s editor or your local television and radio stations’ general managers encouraging them to spread the “don’t drive impaired” message.

• Coordinate a candlelight vigil at the site of a local impaired driving tragedy to remind residents that one of their neighbors died in such a crash.

• Place a crashed car outside your library or government center with details about the victim(s) so people will see it and think twice about driving impaired or letting someone else drive impaired.

• Ask your mayor or top elected official to sign a proclamation declaring December as Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month in your community. Display the proclamation at a local mall or convenient downtown site and invite others in the community to sign it, pledging their support.

Year-Round Activities

To ensure the safety of all residents, work with your local cab company to provide free rides to intoxicated residents. Have a printing company donate the printing of posters promoting the service on which the cab company’s name is listed as a thank you for their efforts. Encourage employers to sponsor a free cab ride service for employees. Employers would agree to pay the cab company but not ask for names so those turning to the service are assured privacy. Your club can present certificates of appreciation to participating companies and ask your newspaper to run an ad listing the companies in order to thank them and encourage others to do the same.

In the spring, create a living memorial by planting a tree or creating a garden in honor of victims, which is added to if more lives are lost. Your club could raise money to purchase park benches with the names of victims on them to give people a place to reflect and remember their lost loved ones. In December, your group can place lights and ribbons on trees in honor of 3D Prevention Month.

Impaired driving prevention is easy at the community level because tasks like these are simple and achievable, with high impact. You may have joined your organization for a variety of reasons, but possibly because you also care about the place in which you and your family work, live, and play. These activities will help your organization by giving it an important place in the community and will help you by ensuring that the roads in your area are safe during the holiday season and all year long.

Successful Program: Washington, DC Metropolitan Area

The Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) works to save lives in the greater Washington, DC area by fighting impaired driving and underage drinking. Embodying the true spirit of grass roots activism, WRAP’s programs involve individuals, companies, bars and restaurants, government agencies, and the armed forces in the battle for safer roads. For example, WRAP’s SoberRide program is a free cab service offered on high alcohol consumption holidays in the region (New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July weekend and Halloween) to provide a safe alternative to would-be impaired drivers. Corporations get involved as sponsors, restaurants and bars help to promote the service, and the media uses it as an avenue to call attention to the issue. It is a model program and has been replicated in other cities.

WRAP also addresses employees over brown bag lunches and employee health fairs with the assistance of local police and victims who share their experiences with impaired driving in order to change behavior. WRAP also works with area high schools through an awards program, assemblies, and presentations to parent groups. WRAP stands ready to assist local community and civic groups with their efforts to keep their communities safe.

For more information, contact:

Timothy Q. Kime

Executive Director

Washington Regional Alcohol Program

8027 Leesburg Pike

Suite 314

Vienna, VA 22182

Phone: (703) 893-0461

Fax: (703) 893-0465

E-mail: tim@cs.com