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 18^th 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 .