Students against drinking and driving
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 28/01) - Over 320 students, many personally affected by tragic drunk driving deaths, were in Yellowknife last weekend for a national conference.
Hosting Canadian Youth Against Impaired Driving (CYAID) completed a remarkable local effort that raised $250,000 for the event, which some from other regions thought the city might not be capable of handling.
The 11th annual conference was unique in that it marked the first time that high schools -- St. Pat's and Sir John Franklin -- hosted a national CYAID gathering. They did it without paid help available to other host cities.
Organizer Michele Thoms says there couldn't be a more appropriate place to bring attention to drunk driving because the Northwest Territories and Yukon have by far the worst drunk driving problem per person in the country.
She hopes the conference will raise awareness enough to push territorial politicians into passing tougher drinking and driving laws.
The cause has personal meaning for 15-year-old Esther Wolki of Paulatuk. Last summer her best friend Guy died in a drunk driving accident in the community of 300, an hour's flight east of Inuvik.
She was sent by her school to the conference because, "My teachers know what I've been through," she said.
It wasn't all sad stories for her and other delegates. The upbeat weekend got a rousing start when hundreds of energetic youths from every province streamed into a gymnasium vibrating with music. Armed with toilet paper rolls, they burned off steam throwing them about.
"It's been pretty cool. I've met lots of new friends," Wolki said.
Stephen Legaree of Yellowknife said the conference was "a great opportunity to meet people from across Canada who believe in the same stuff, being against impaired driving."
Between two dances the delegates, who are the ones needing the least convincing, were peppered with leadership talks, graphic stories from paramedics and a coroner, plus testimonials about the impact of driving drunk.
The main purpose was to empower youths into leading a change of attitudes.
"Students take the message back home and pass it on to their peers. They build momentum and they're the ones who make an impact," said Alberta school social worker Lavonn Mutch, who lost a 12-year-old daughter to drunk driving.
