Alcohol Awareness Day held at Parkland

The Parkland College Police Department hosted Alcohol Awareness Day on Monday, April 18, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

According to Officer Matt Koppman, this is the third year in a row he has hosted the event. The goal of the event is to spread awareness about underage drinking, its health risks and driving under the influence.

Koppman stated, “My main goal is to reach out to the Parkland students and spread awareness of the risks associated with alcohol consumption and abuse."

This event was informational to Parkland students, showing them the effects of alcohol consumption on the brain.

Public Safety set up a course for drunk-driving stimulation in the L-Lounge. Public safety took a golf cart and goggles that were rigged to be “drunken goggles” and allowed Parkland Students to experience intoxicated driving.

Parkland student Laura Poitnott said, “It was really interesting. It was blurry and confusing.” when explaining how she felt driving the golf cart “intoxicated.”

Another student, Jimmy Cantull explained, “I thought I was good, but it was really dark and it felt dangerous.”

Not only did Alcohol Awareness Day allow students the experience to understand the unsafe of driving intoxicated, but it taught them the consequences of intoxicated driving.

During the event, in the gallery of C-118, there was also a video shown called “Bombed.” In the video, footage was shown of the effects of drunk driving including footage of someone having their stomach pumped.

In another event, students were able to participate in a computer simulation called “One Simple Decision.” The simulator was much like a driving video game, except that the vehicle was very slow to respond to the driver.

One student sat down and after turning the first corner, immediately slammed into another vehicle. After the car accident, footage was shown from the perspective of the driver of a blurry view of a hospital. In the hospital, nurses are intubating the drunk driver and prepping him for surgery.

Next, a scene was shown of the driver in court. The driver who was intoxicated was sentenced to 1 year in jail. After the footage, Corray explained to the group of Parkland students that the stimulation changed the outcome based on different circumstances.

For example, rather than showing the intoxicated driver making it out alive, he and the person whom they crashed into could have died or been seriously injured. Furthermore, the sentence given by the judge could have been far more than a year judging by the circumstances.

Parkland student Courtney Roberts won a raffle for a $50 Wal-Mart gift certificate just for attending the event.

With the help of agencies such as theCommunity Elements Prevention Department, Community Elements Crisis Line, The Pavilion, Prairie Center Health Systems, Parkland College Wellness Center and Illinois Students Against Destructive Decisions, Officer Koppman and Officer Angela Corray of the Parkland College Police Department were able to put on Alcohol Awareness Day.

These agencies helped by providing supplies and other helpful resources. TheCommunity Elements Prevention Department facilitated the video in C-118, while the Pavilion provided free alcohol screenings, Illinois SADD provided the DUI simulator and President Ramage provided drunken goggles and a golf cart. Koppman also gave credit to Champaign Urbana Campus Coalition against drug and alcohol usage in helping to inform Parkland students of alcohol awareness.

Not only was this event beneficial in the way that it informed the Parkland community of alcohol awareness, but it also reached out with an award for those willing to become more aware.