A Vacation from Intoxication

TSLEC was invited to the Humber “Vacation from Intoxication Health Fair” and we were so glad we participated. The fair was based on bringing alcohol awareness to the college’s campus in a fun interesting way. The day started at 9:00; the team swung by our storage to pick up much needed giveaways for the fair which proved to be a hit with the students. When we arrived we were greeted enthusiastically by the hostesses of the event and taken right to where we would be engaged. We arrived in the student’s cafeteria and I automatically felt an energetic rush!

Students were everywhere, music was playing and vendors were beginning to connect. It was our turn, we quickly set our materials and we were off! Along with fortune cookies and mouse pads/ laptop skins, we also had a t-shirt give-away. In order to win a ‘Here’s to My Choice’ t-shirt the students had to find some friends to model our famous four necked t-shirt and take a picture in it with our SLEC cam. The t-shirt advertised our BACCHUS name including the message “add us on face book”. The activity was a smash hit! Once the students saw this strange t-shirt everyone wanted a chance to put it on, after all the reward wasn’t too shabbyJ. The idea was brilliant because we were definitely able to get the BACCHUS name out to many students.

The Public Relations Certificate class students who put on and hosted the event were fabulous! Their hospitality and genuine concern for the host’s and student’s comfort was so great, they served us lunch and made sure they did constant checkups to simply see if we were hydrated as well. Kudos, guys you were amazing! With all the hype and interaction with the four necked tee the day seemed to fly by and in no time it was time to head back to the office already. Before we left the public relations class wowed us again by presenting not only us, but every participating vendor with gift bags!

It was a good day for TSLEC/BACCHUS Canada. We only hope that the message underneath all the fun and giveaways is really considered and recognized. After all the reason as to why we were all there was contributing small pieces to saving Canada’s youth.

One Week Today, St. Patrick's Day

March is known for one it’s most famous holidays, St. Patrick’s Day. It’s a day known most for fun, leisure and all things Irish! Unfortunately, this day is also often known for the over-consumption of alcohol use. This is particularly noticeable with post- secondary school students. While this time most definitely does call for celebration, students may also find that the peer pressures to over-consume are often over-bearing. BACCHUS wants to make it known that celebrating can be done safely. BACCHUS Canada launches an annual program to post-secondary schools to challenge misconceptions around what it means to celebrate 'all things Irish', and to raise awareness about the risks associated with heavy consumption.

This year's manual is designed to help BACCHUS members plan events around campus that create engaging opportunities and activities for students to express their 'green spirit' in ways that do not endorse the association between 'all things Irish' and over-consumption. This is a day that should be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of whether or not they choose to associate it with drinking. Irish spirit and culture is much richer than that.
Members can access the manual and all the printable materials to help create events/programs around campus by logging your user name and password into the Bacchus member’s site (www.bacchusmembers.com)

Thanks for empowering students, and saving the lives of youth across Canada.

Dayla Burgess
Community Engagement Intern
The Student Life Education Company

Nova Scotia's new Responsible Drinking Campaign

The new campaign launched by Health Intermediaries is similar to an initiative developed by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand.

It is part of a three-phased social marketing campaign, with Phase 1 designed to raise awareness and help people see that there is a problem within the communities of Nova Scotia.

Phase 2 is about helping individuals understand that they may be a part of the problem and the solution

Phase 3 looks at taking action on changing the culture of drinking in a variety of ways.

The video can be seen on youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUWUzPDvPQU

Interested to hear thoughts on the video and message. More information on the Campaign can be found on the website http://www.changingtheculture.ns.ca/

Donations for Spring 2010

We are in the early months of a new decade. Thinking back, a lot of progress has been made to educate youth in the use and non-use of alcohol and other health issues. But challenging risky decisions around alcohol use is a difficult task; according to the World Health Organization’s Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), 32% of undergraduates in Canada reported harmful drinking patterns. This rate is even higher among those students who live on campus (42.7%).

BACCHUS Canada is dedicated to empowering students in post-secondary schools with knowledge and awareness to help them make responsible choices and minimize risk. Advisors and peer educators work on the ground level (residences, health departments & around campus) to organize campaigns, distribute awareness materials, and break down misconceptions.

Your financial donation will assist us in providing the right amount of information to empower youth (our future) to make healthy choices! Your donation allows us to reach more schools, provide resources, create new tools, improve training, and increase awareness of a number of important issues that will potentially save the lives of Canadian students.

We ask that you join us by making a gift to The Student Life Education Company. In recognition of your contribution, you will be included in our prominent and growing list of generous donors. All gifts to The Student Life Education Company are tax deductible and you will be provided with a charitable tax receipt for your gift.

To donate online, you can click the “Donate Now” button below.

Or you can mail a cheque made payable to “The Student Life Education Company” 55 St. Clair Avenue West – Suite 255, Toronto, Ontario, M4V 2Y7

Or call our office at 416-243-1338 / 1-866-213-0311 to donate using your Visa or MasterCard.

Thank you for making The Student Life Education Company as a charity you support!

Scare Tactics less effective than Awareness Campaigns in Reducing excessive drinking

A recent study published in the third issue of the Cochrane Library 2009 has found that informing students has been more beneficial than using scare tactics to curb dangerous drinking habits. The study argues that most young people have misconceptions about the amount their peers regularly drink and this in turn creates a sort of peer pressure which can drive drinking levels upward. BACCHUS Canada believes in supplying students with the information they need to make responsible and healthy choices while attending post-secondary institutions. Through breaking down misconceptions regarding substance abuse we believe that the individual student is able to make the right choices for themselves.

Click here for the link

Facebook Groups - "Class of 2013"

Facebook is a common social networking media tool that is popular with high school and post-secondary students. Making the transition from high school to college or university is one of the most exciting times in a student’s life, therefore it should come as no surprise that they would join their new school’s Facebook “Class of …” site. It’s a great idea! In order to meet fellow classmates, ask alumni and upper year students questions and get excited about the institution that the student has chosen.

It’s a great idea except Facebook has recently fallen victim to fake users, setting up “University/College name – Class of 2013” sites that are actually advertisers that collect, for marketing purposes, information from the people that join the groups. Administrators from various schools in Canada have taken to seeking out these groups, reporting them, and proceeding to set up their own official groups in order to assure that their students are not spammed. This is a saving grace, but as more groups are deleted, the fake groups continue to pop up. It is important that students entering into post-secondary institutions for the first time are aware of the potential fake groups that they may encounter. To read further on this you can link to the following sites:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/661370 - July 6, 2009

http://matthewmelnyk.blogspot.com/2009/06/facebook-2014-2015-and-beyond.html - June 25, 2009

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/facebook-scam-targets-undergrads/article1183110/ - June 19, 2009

http://matthewmelnyk.blogspot.com/2009/06/normal-0-false-false-false.html - June 3, 2009

Drinking, Driving and Sleep Walking

Drinking and Driving… and Sleep Walking

20-year old John Soong is facing charges of impaired driving, evading police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. According to the police report, at the time he was arrested, Mr. Soong had almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. His defence, however, is that he was unaware of his consumption of alcohol as he was sleeping at the time.

Mr. Soong has been clinically diagnosed with sleep apnea, a disorder that stops your breathing for periods during sleep, and can cause drowsiness during the day. The Crown has a different take on the situation, and argues that Mr. Soong should have been conscious of the fact that he was not in any state to drive when he woke up.

So when should you be held accountable for your actions? Should he have been accountable for his actions during the time he was sleeping? Before he went to bed, when he took several cold medications? Or afterwards, when he drove a car which ultimately led to his arrest? Regardless, impaired, drowsy, and distracted driving are dangerous, and we are thankful that no one was hurt. The Student Life Education Company and its divisions wonder what could have prevented this, so we’d like to know: what strategies do you implement to assure that you and your friends are safe? And how could a situation such as this be prevented in the future?

For more on the story, click here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/drinking-and-driving-and-sleepwalking/article1185148/

Care and Control

Connie Banks learned a hard lesson standing outside of her vehicle in the spring of 2008, when she was charged with care and control of a vehicle while her blood alcohol level was above the legal limit. The Georgetown native was found by an officer leaning against her car, awaiting a tow-truck when she was assumed to have care and control of the vehicle, and following protocol was asked 2 hours after her retrieval to blow into a breathalyzer.

This case may come as no surprise to those that have heard of care and control cases where someone was found intoxicated sleeping in their car. However, with the laws getting tougher, and new legislation with a “warning” level it is possible that this “[c]onviction offers little hope for anyone with a car who has alcohol in their system”. Which leaves the lesson learned: if you consume any alcohol, be sure not to be in care and control of a car, and certainly don’t drive.

Click on the link below for information on Ms. Banks’ trial.

http://www.thestar.com/article/649805

Maclean's 2009 Guide to Canadian Universities

My link to Queen’s University is rooted in my experiences there as I am entering my fourth year in the fall and have lived both on and off of campus in Kingston. I took an interest in the Maclean’s 2009 Guide to Canadian Universities since I knew that Queen’s pulled out of the survey a few years ago, and it’s always interesting to see what is said about my school. I became quickly frustrated by the culture that Maclean’s painted for Queen’s – a culture that was clearly only absorbed in drinking. The top of the What’s Not [Hot] list was Homecoming being cancelled due to “raucous street parties in the past”. While this may be true, more aggravating still was the idea that nearly everything that was interesting off campus revolved around alcohol, including the bar that closes and is renamed every year due to its illegal allowance of underage students. How appropriate is it for a magazine that is trying to attract first year students to focus solely on drinking?

Instead of highlighting on things like Kingston being one of the cities with the most restaurants per capita in Canada, exploring Wolfe Island with floormates, and discovering the amazing bakery there, it focused almost wholly on where to get good drinks and a bar that is “popular with first years”. Why not concentrate on the ability to play sports or study next to Lake Ontario when the weather is nice, and then going to a patio to enjoy the sunshine and a drink or two. There are so many more things to do in Kingston, and even at the bars. The Grizzly Grill is a restaurant, bar, and great place to watch sports and play billiards. Lone Star Grill has a patio to enjoy the sun and grab some grub, they also have the best margaritas in town. Princess Street has amazing cafes, many unique, Kingston-owned businesses for shopping, and bars. There are parks just off campus where people play sports all year round with new friends, and there are many opportunities to enjoy getting to know a city that is so much more than just a wet party town.

For students thinking about going to university, this is not a plea to go to Queen’s – go where you feel comfortable, but go visit the campus, instead of putting your decision in the hands of a magazine article.

Ringing cellphone cited in crash that kills 17 year old from London

We are saddened to hear about the death of a 17 year old from London, Ontario who crashed his car while reaching for his ringing cellphone. Accidents like this are tragic, which is why we have been fighting to bring distracted driving to the same level of public awareness as drunk driving. Young drivers should be aware of the potential dangers of driving while being distracted by things like hand-held devices. In Ontario, drivers who drive distracted with cellphones can be charged up to $500. If they endanger others while driving, they can even face careless driving charges, which means they can be charged with up to $1000 in fines and even face jail time.

To read more about the accident, follow this link.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/06/05/9683506-sun.html

To read more about the cellphone ban in Ontario, follow this link.

http://www.studentlifeeducation.com/Page.asp?IdPage=7050&WebAddress=tslec