Make a Difference
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21

Here are some examples of kids who have made a difference!

LYDIA ENCINIAS, an eighth grader in Pojoaque, New Mexico was trying to decide on a school project about drugs when she noticed a couple of beer billboards near her school. Lydia thought it didn’t make sense for her school and community to be spending a lot of money fighting drug use while billboards right across from the school were pushing drinking. She
decided to do something about it.

First, she rounded up a couple of sixth-grade school mates to help. Then she researched the issue, talked to the right people, and got people to sign a petition. Soon, the manager of the billboard company took down the beer ads. The newspaper in her city put the story on the front page.

A leadership class in Pryor, Oklahoma knew that underage drinking parties where adults were providing the alcohol were a problem in their town. So they went to the mayor and asked that a “social host” law be passed. (A social host law punishes adults who give alcohol to a young person who is not their own child.) They worked hard, calling each person on the City Council at least 3 times! Eventually their efforts paid off – the City Council passed the law!

JUSTIN KIMBER, a junior at Bishop Ludden Junior-Senior High School in Syracuse, New York – and a member of the Heart of New York Teen Institute – was concerned about the appeal of alcohol energy drinks such as Sparks and Tilt. These drinks are like Red Bull or Monster, but with alcohol added. He saw that they came in cans that looked like regular energy drinks or soda, were very cheap, and included ingredients that shouldn’t go together. So he wrote a piece for the teen section of the Syracuse newspaper to alert people about the problem.

This is called MEDIA ADVOCACY – using the media to bring attention to a problem
in order to make it better.

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