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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Contact: Dana Mitchell
August 18,
2008 603-817-9773
On Tuesday August 12, over fifty youth
advocates from Dover Youth to Youth launched a year-long underage drinking
prevention campaign designed to educate parents about where young kids most
often get their first alcohol.
This campaign is based on the most
recent Dover survey of 1,600 students. In that survey kids were asked where
they got the alcohol for the first few drinking experiences. The number one
answer was: from their home or the home of a friend. Youth to Youth believes
that alcohol is too easily accessible by youth and want to raise awareness among
parents so they will take steps to prevent their kids from being tempted to try
it.
One element of the Youth to Youth
campaign included a sticker project where students went into local supermarkets
and placed warning stickers on cases of alcohol. The adhesive sticker said "Can
a good kid do something dumb? Your kid's next drink might be right next to the
milk. Don't let your home be a place of temptation. Lock it, dump it, track it,
or give it away". Before placing the stickers student received permission from
all the stores.
While applying stickers at Shaw's in
Dover, employees of New Hampshire Distributors confronted members of Youth to
Youth. Students tried to explain what they were doing to the distributor
employees. The beer company representatives stated that the kids had no right to
be placing the stickers on the cases of alcohol and that they were vandalizing
their property. They then proceeded to rip some of the stickers off of the
cases.
Students at the store decided that it
was not worth getting into an argument and left the store and head over to
Hannaford where there was another group of students. The NH Distributors
employees followed them over there and began to rip the stickers off there as
well.
 Dover
students have been "sticker-ing beer" with various warning messages for several
years. The company has long maintained that the students did not have the right
to do so, even with store permission.
The next day, Wednesday August 13, the
students held a demonstration in downtown Dover to protest the conduct of the
company and to reach out to the public about the core issue: how kids are
getting alcohol.
To get this message out, students set up
life-size cardboard refrigerators in three locations downtown. Students also had
informational posters that had messages like "Monitor your alcohol" and "What's
in your fridge?". Students also handed out fliers to pedestrians and chanted
their message to motorists passing through downtown.
Following the demonstration and its
media attention the New Hampshire Distributors began adjusting its position. In
conversations with various media outlets they conceded that the stores did own
the beer and had the right to allow the sticker project to occur. The New
Hampshire Distributors also requested a meeting with the students of Dover Youth
to Youth.
The meeting which took place at the
McConnell Center the morning of August 18th was attended by 4 members
of Dover Youth to Youth as well as Christopher Brown President & Chief
Operations Officer and Tyler Kelly Vice President of Marketing both with New
Hampshire Distributors, Inc. Representatives from the New Hampshire Liquor
Commission also attended the meeting.
At the meeting there was discussion
about what happened last week and how a similar situation can be avoided in the
future. Also discussed were ways to further spread the message about the problem
of underage drinking.
One thing that was agreed upon by both
parties was the fact that the stores own the alcohol and have the right to allow
students to place the stickers on cases. Kelly and Brown said their employees
will not interfere with the project in the future and they agreed to write a
letter to Youth to Youth that can be presented to stores and any employees that
may challenge the project in the future.
Youth to Youth agreed to notify the
company in advance when and where stickers will be placed on product in the
stores. Students will also allow the company to review the appearance of future
stickers and offer suggestions or concerns on the message and size of the
stickers.
The issue of preventing underage
drinking was discussed, and the students were impressed with the company's
willingness to work together cooperatively to promote the message to parents to
prevent any alcohol in the home from getting into kids hands.
Company officials and students agreed to
explore ways to work together to get positive messages out about underage
drinking. Mr. Brown even raised the possibility of the company paying for
additional signs with similar messages that would be placed in stores and other
retail outlets.
Molly Martuscello a Youth to Youth
student who attended the meeting said "We left the meeting on a very positive
note agreeing that underage drinking is a huge problem that needs to be
addressed. The members of Youth to Youth look forward to further discussing ways
the groups can work together to address the problem."
By coincidence, 12 students from Youth
to Youth will be leaving Wednesday to travel to Nashville, Tennessee to attend
the National Conference on Underage Drinking. Youth to Youth students are
presenting several workshops to law enforcement and prevention professionals
from all over the US.
Dover Youth to Youth is an after school
drug prevention effort coordinated by the Dover Police Department. For more
information on this issue or Dover Youth to Youth please call 603-516-3274. More
information is also available at the Dover Youth to Youth website at
www.doveryouth.com .
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