Wellness Resource Center jumpstarts Alcohol Responsibility Month resource fair

By Lakeisha Williams

Published Oct. 3, 2008

"Responsibility. It's as easy as 1-2-3 B.A.C." - that was the slogan at Wednesday's Alcohol Responsibility Month resource fair. No, not the alphabet, but blood alcohol content level.

The Wellness Resource Center jumpstarted this year's resource fair, packing lower level Brady Commons with eight booths providing students information about alcohol-related issues. Students visited each table and received free pizza, T-shirts and information.

Table No. 1 was headed by ADAPT/PAWS peer educator and sophomore Sarah Nussbaum.

"We're offering information to enhance alcohol awareness and promote responsibility when it comes to alcohol consumption," Nussbaum said. "In conjunction with this, there will be a 12-hour ARM walk this Friday," Nussbaum said.

The Alcohol Responsibility Month walk will take place from noon to midnight, starting at Stankowski Field. The Wellness Resource Center also sponsors Drive Safe. Drive Smart.

"Drive Safe. Drive Smart. encourages safe driving through education," Wellness Resource Center staff member Jessica Schlosser said. "We not only discourage drinking and driving, but we also focus on topics such as safety belt usage, speeding and distracted, aggressive and drowsy driving."

Schlosser coordinates three programs at the Wellness Resource Center, including CHEERS. CHEERS offers free non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers to encourage the use of designated drivers. About 80 bars participate in the program across Columbia.

And CHEERS isn't the only effort offering a free ride. STRIPES offers safe rides for students Thursday through Saturday, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

"STRIPES was inspired by a car pool system witnessed at Texas A&M in 1996. The idea was brought back to MU and developed from there," STRIPES executive board member Morgan Weir said.

Weir said it is a myth that STRIPES is only for intoxicated individuals - STRIPES serves anyone in need of a ride.

But the resource fair went beyond just alcohol, combining alcohol responsibility with overall health.

Also present at the resource fair was Peers Advocating Smoke-Free Solutions. "Our main focus is to make MU smoke free through education and increasing awareness," PASS member Andrea Johnson said. The PASS table offered students free kits containing first-aid products and health assessments.

Sexual Health Advocate Peer Educators was also a part of the resource fair. The organization encourages students to learn about maintaining sexual health and promotes respect, responsibility and integrity in all relationships. It also encourages students to make healthy choices such as avoiding the usage of alcohol and drugs, using condoms and receiving physical and dental exams on a regular basis.

"We train peer educators to be knowledgeable about safer, responsible sexual health and to be capable of doing presentations on the topic," Heather Eastman-Mueller said. "We also offer a class for credit called Sexual Health Advocacy and Service Learning Interdisciplinary Studies 2960, open to all students and may serve as an elective in Women's and Gender Studies as well as a sociology course. Students discuss sexuality in a religious, political, societal and familial context."

Education about the consequences of misusing alcohol is part of the effort to advocate drinking responsibly. That's where Donell Young comes in.

"A lot of incidents we deal with are usually alcohol-related," said Young, senior coordinator of the Office of Judicial Services. "We assess what happened, and there are consequences, but we usually try to work with the student to figure out what went wrong and steps to prevent it in the future."

Mizzou After Dark provided free arts and crafts for students attending the fair. It will also offer activities at Friday's walk. The Alcohol Responsibility Month resource fair is only one of many events to come this month, including a legal issues panel, STRIPES in the daytime, health screenings and more.

Concluding the day's events, inspirational comedian Judson Laipply gave a performance at Jesse Hall Auditorium. Throughout Laipply's performance, he emphasized the power of choice, encouraging students to think things out ahead of time and live by their decisions.

Laipply also shared his choice to avoid smoking marijuana because of the negative effects it would have on his college baseball career.

In harmony with Alcohol Responsibility Month, he expressed how drinking can alter one's thought process and can cause people to act irrationally. He said he witnessed three close friends lose their teaching jobs due to receiving a driving under the influence.

"Life isn't always the party we expected it to be, but while we're here we might as well dance," Laipply said.

He then moved the crowd, literally, with his six-and-a-half-minute dance routine covering 50 years of popular dance moves, known as the Evolution of Dance, a hit video on YouTube.

"Life is change," Laipply said.

He said people's worlds will perpetually change, but the people must let go of the things they cannot control and focus their energy on the things they can exert power over. He said once people realize they are capable of this power, they can make positive decisions and good choices when it comes to drinking - and every aspect of life.