SADD All-members meeting Thursday April 9‏

Hey SADD members,

There will be a meeting for all members on Thursday, April 9th at 2:15 PM. We usually meet in Mr. Weiderman's room (214) but we will checking to make sure that is a possibility (it usually is). Tim will make an announcement as usual this week announcing the location.

Thanks,

Gabby :)

The 84 Campaign and the Prom Skits!‏

Hi Everyone,

Some things from the last 2 weeks, starting with the 84 Campaign! THANK YOU for all the help and support from you all (getting signatures, completing missions, getting the word out) , the campaign was a big success!! We have about 130 signatures that I am still cutting out individually and pasting on posterboard. This will be on/near our bulletin board near A stairwell on the 1st floor. Already we have a list of reasons NOT to use tobacco there, so check it out! Great news about competing for completing the most missions... Gardner placed in the top ten for the state of MA! The proof is here at the 84 website: http://www.the84.org/iconnect2win . So great job! Thanks again for helping out. :)

For those of you who helped with our Safety at Prom Skits, fantastic job! As you may have heard from Sam, people really liked them and appreciated our efforts to help keep kids safe on Prom Night. Thanks for being there, and excellent acting! So there will be a community meeting for this sometime this month, according to our Community Coordinator Josh Tackett, and Mrs. Mcryllis is still organizing meetings for parents and students in May. We can perform them at these meetings as well. If you did not make it to the first one, see me if you are interested in a small part (for example, holding a sign or something) for the others. More details to come when I hear back from them.

I had read Sam's idea for a PSA, etc. recently about an issue SADD should cover; depression. SADD is known for its no-use policy for drugs and alcohol, but any destructive decision is "fair game" for us, such as depression and suicide, eating disorders, not using seatbelts, and even health-related issues like getting enough sleep. So I think that is a great idea. Maybe if we wanted to do a Public Service Announcement or other informational project, we could work on it for the end of the year. Anyone who wants can be involved. So we will start thinking about something like that; it's a good idea to expand our reach of topics.

That's about it for now. Thanks again for all the help with the 84 Campaign and the Safety at Prom Skits! I agree with Sam and believe we can accomplish so much as a group, look where we are already. So thanks again! I'll see you all in school.

- Gabby :)

Hey SADD!‏

Hey everyone,
So the prom skits for the junior prom meeting went really well. Great job to all those who participated in them. We should still be doing them for the senior prom meeting. If anything changes we'll let you know immediately.

As you know, the SADD chapter at Gardner is primarily focused on underage drinking and smoking. Now, while these topics are extremely important and vital to helping our community, I believe that as a group we can focus on more. We could continue to focus on the other two topics, while working on new ones. A major topic that I have in mind is suicide prevention. Suicide affects more people than we realize. It is an important issue in today's world and I believe we should try to help. Any opinions on what you think about suicide prevention and if we should focus on it are greatly welcomed.

Some of you may know that a few months ago, Tim, Gabby, Josh and I shot a PSA with the help of Mike Perron. For those of you who don't know what a PSA is, it's a Public Service Announcement. A PSA is meant raise awareness about a specific issue and to educate the viewers on the specific subject. The PSA that we shot was about underaged drinking and driving and the consquences. A fellow officer and I were discussing shooting another PSA possibly about suicide prevention. Any feedback on this idea would be great.

SADD has grown tremendously for us this year. The effect of everyone joining and participating in activites has been tremendous. Just to think, we've just started and we've already done so much. It may not seem like much now, but in the long run, it's amazing. I just wanted to throw that in there. This group is amazing and I can't wait to see what else we all accomplish together.

Thanks,
Sam