SADD members attend Governor’s Prevention Partnership

Posted by: Debbie Bowley on Thu, 09 October 2008 20:18:22

Physical Education/Health Department Chair and SADD Adviser Peggy McGowan accompanied two Lauralton Hall SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) officers, Jessica Makrinos, ’09 and Catherine “Kasia” Phillips, ’09, both of Stamford, on a trip to the Lyceum in Hartford for the Governor's Prevention Partnership SADD Youth Leadership Conference on October 8. Workshops focused on positive youth leadership, healthy decision-making and initiating positive changes in our school and community. The keynote speaker, Dr. Jim Fitzgerald of the Student Leadership Training Program in Massachusetts, started the day off with great leadership skill-drills, followed by workshops for smaller groups for discussion of the safe driving laws, addiction and issues concerning the legal drinking age. Advisers met in groups to share ideas unique to their respective SADD chapters.  

The day wrapped up with a panel discussion which involved a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) representative, a student involved with the MADD programs, a state trooper and a health representative from Wesleyan University. Students were given time to express their concerns with news of possibly lowering the drinking age to 18, creating great discussion by all.  Mrs. McGowan stated “there are over 80 chapters of SADD in the State of Connecticut and only 15 SADD chapters were represented. It was a small group, but very, very informative. What a great experience! We were very pleased that Lauralton Hall was represented today and we look forward to our SADD year ahead of us.”

Lauralton’s SADD President Jessica Makrinos and SADD Vice President Kasia Phillips had this to say about their experience, "This workshop helped us a lot today. We now have more tools to help us in our leadership of this year's SADD club. We are so motivated and more passionate than ever to share the ideas we learned from today’s events with our club here at Lauralton. It was a great learning day for all of us!”