As a student of Lower Lake High School in 1989, I can recall vividly the tragedy that struck our school that year and the pain and confusion that followed. I can remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news about three of our prominent upperclassmen losing their lives in a drunken driving incident and the struggle to heal that followed.
Team DUI has made it its mission to avoid the pain that we all felt that tragic year.
As I look around our community I see many of my classmates who were forced to face the consequences of drinking and driving at such a young and vulnerable age. Now that we have grown and learned more about the reality of life, I realize how important it is for us as a community to protect our children.
One primary reason drives the support that I have extended to Team DUI. It is my unwavering hope that my friends, now in their roles as parents, will never have to face the pain that we all experienced as children.
Although it will be quite painful, and I still weep when it is discussed, I encourage each and every Trojan to attend the candlelight vigil Team DUI is hosting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday April 2 at Austin Park. This will be a time to remember our losses, not only of 1989, but of all the preventable tragedies that have impacted our community.
I am quite positive that none of my classmates have forgotten the incident that took the lives of Josh Burke, Frank Doyle and Joseph Dizon. I know that my mother has not forgotten either as she was friends with the mother of one of the victims. She is the one who told me of the tragedy as I sat their on the living room floor playing a board game with my little sister.
As a child, I didn”t realize just how far the impact of such an incident stretches. Our children must be made aware that their decisions not only affect themselves, their friends and their parents, but they also affect the parents of their friends and the community at-large. I encourage you all to bring your children to the candlelight service so they will know exactly how much pain a poor decision can cause.
The event will be an emotional one; of that I”m sure. We will hear from educators, whom many of us have admired and respected for years.
Those educators who once led us are now leading our children. This will be an opportunity for our children to understand the lasting impressions that tragedy can have on those who influence our lives.
I continue to have faith in the mission of Team DUI and hope you will all join in this effort to prevent the lasting pain associated with drunken driving incidents.
Denise Rockenstein, LLHS Class of 1991, is a reporter for the Record-Bee and Observer-American.
