Pre-Winter Break Campaign

Students are looking forward to a break from classes and seeing their friends back home. With the holidays, there are plenty of opportunities for students to avoid impaired driving. Help the students on your campus to have a safe holiday break before they leave campus. Here are some ideas on how you can encourage your peers to make a plan in advance to be safe while having fun this holiday season:

• Contact your state department of transportation safety to find out if they will be doing high visibility DUI enforcement around your state during winter break and then advertise it to students on campus with information about safe ride alternatives.
  
• Have a holiday pledge for students to sign and pledge to not drink and drive, let friends drink and drive, or ride with an impaired driver and to always wear a seatbelt. Develop your own pledge or use the following:
  
  This holiday season, I give my friends and myself the gift of life. I pledge to not drink and drive, ride with an impaired driver, let my friends drink and drive or ride with an impaired driver, and to always wear my seatbelt.
  
• Set up awareness tables in high traffic areas around campus in the days leading up to finals and break. Serve hot chocolate and ask students to sign the holiday pledge.
  
• Print the pledge on paper holiday tree decorations. Have students sign the pledge and then decorate a tree in the student center, dining hall, or residence halls with the pledges.
  
• Print the pledge on postcards with a holiday or winter theme picture. Have students sign the pledge and put their home address on the postcard. Mail the postcard so it will arrive mid-break, right before New Year's Eve.
  
• Label candy canes with messages such as, "Have a happy and safe holiday break: always designate a sober driver." or "Remember to designate your substance-free designated driver before going out to celebrate this holiday," and hand the candy out in residence halls, dining halls, classrooms, etc.
  
• Decorate small gift boxes. Inside place a pledge to help a friend arrive home safely by providing a sober ride. Students can give these to their friends as gifts.
  
• Provide local bars and restaurants with business size cards listing the numbers for safe rides, public transportation, and taxis to give to patrons before they leave to go home.
  

For additional programming ideas, click on the Programming button in the navigation bar at the top of this page. Also, check out the 3D Month website: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/StopImpaired/HolidayPlanner/index.htm

Remember, be safe while you are having fun during the winter holidays: designate a non-drinking driver, call a sober friend, get a sober ride.

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