LAKE COUNTY – Team DUI is stepping up its efforts this holiday season to remind youth and the community of the consequences of drinking and driving. Several new members have joined the team with new stories being shared with students throughout Lake County.
The team”s next presentation will be on Monday, Dec. 1 at Middletown where they will address 10th and 11th grade students.
“Team DUI is working diligently to reach as many of our youth as possible this holiday season as the holidays have a tendency to increase drinking and driving. Members of Team DUI are sharing personal, sensitive stories to help our youth understand first-hand, that the choices they make have consequences,” Judy Thein, Team DUI founder said. “Through shared stories, holiday-related alcohol tragedies have emerged as one of the common denominators along with the realization that being a passenger in vehicle driven by a DUI driver holds severe consequences.”
According to Thein, students are realizing that they do not have to be the one drinking and driving to be a victim. “Kids are realizing, even as a non-drinking passenger, their lives and the ones they love, can forever be changed in a matter of seconds,” Thein said. “They are understanding how alcohol can affect their ability to make decisions.” Several new speakers have joined Team DUI”s effort to keep our youth and community safe. “Our newest speakers share their emotional stories with our youth and the community as they want to do what ever they can to help prevent senseless tragedies,” Thein said. “Wendy Jensen shares her story of how she became an alcoholic at an early age, which eventually led her to tragically inflicting great bodily harm and almost killing and innocent victim one year ago.”
Jensen”s story reflects the effect her actions had on her family and the victim”s family. The victim was a father who was trying to get home to his family for the holidays. “He never made it home for Thanksgiving because of Wendy”s selfish decision to drink and drive,”
Thein said. “She was driving 65 mph the wrong way on a freeway and collided head-on into the man”s vehicle. Wendy shares the pain and the suffering she caused his family, herself and her own family, which she knows can never be erased.” Josh Farris and his mother Laura Farris have also joined the team.
Josh became a victim at a very young age and the consequences he”s endured have been seen first-hand by his peers while attending Lower Lake High School. “Josh was a young victim who was a passenger in a vehicle driven by an intoxicated driver who ran a red light,” Thein said. “He was pronounced dead at the scene, but through a miracle, he hung onto life, only to have his family watch him die again at the hospital.”
The effects of the tragedy are overwhelming. Farris” speech is dramatically impaired and he struggles daily to gain motor functions.
“He and his family will struggle together for the rest of their lives due to the consequences of the actions of a DUI driver,” Thein said.
“The visibility of the hardships this young man will forever endure is leaving a lasting impression in the minds of students.”
Chief Deputy Russ Perdock of the Lake County Sheriff”s Department has joined the team to share a story of 20 years ago. The incident he speaks of left a massive scar on the student body of Lower Lake High School, as this reporter recalls firsthand.
“Russ was a young officer when he responded to the scene of the tragic deaths of three Lower Lake High School students who were killed because they chose to drink and drive after drinking at a party,” Thein said. “He recounts vividly the heartbreaking memory of this tragedy and the many lives that were forever changed.”
Team DUI has grown considerably in one short year. There are now 20 participating agencies and departments including five school districts and three media outlets along with numerous individuals collaborating together throughout Lake County. The team has grown from its original two speakers to 13 speakers with plans to enlist more.
“We have received requests for presentations from all Lake County middle and high schools. Team DUI is making an impact on the safety of our youth and community,” Thein said. “Kids are opening up their lines of community with the team.”
Team DUI is looking forward to implementing new ideas to address underage drinking as it works in cooperation with Lake County schools. The team is looking forward to incorporating younger individuals, whose lives have been affected by alcohol in one way or another, into the team as well as implementing other innovative ideas.
Presentations for the 2008-09 academic year have already begun. On Nov. 10 and 13 the team addressed more than 250 students at Lower Lake High School. The next presentation will be on Monday at Middletown High School. On Thursday, Dec. 4 the team will be at Middletown Middle School and on Tuesday, Dec. 9 a presentation will be made at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport.
The final presentation to be made prior to the Christmas break will be at Upper Lake High School on Thursday, Dec. 11.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
