Mock DWI, NH, etc


Michele from our county STOP DWI program got ahold of me again a couple weeks ago. She asked if I would be interested in presenting at any of their Mock DWI crashes this year. I emailed her back & told her it would be dependent on the dates & times. I wanted to atleast send her an email to let her know I wasn't completely 'un-interested'.

A couple days ago, she got back to me & said the first one was on May 1st & said she wouldn't be able to be there, but she gave my name to the SADD director at the school (who I believe to be a student, per her grammar/spelling & the fact she addressed me as 'Ms.Towne'). The SADD director emailed me & said they plan on having a presentor for before & a presentor for after the crash.

I hmm'd over it & decided I should just take the leap & do it. I emailed her back & said I would, but I wanted to present before the crash because the last one I watched was so emotional for me there was no way I could have presented after.

Now I need to figure out what the heck I'm going to say. The last one I did was on October 20th, 2005. Which would have been my Mother's birthday & I figured that was sign enough I needed to do it. But now I have a lot more information about the accident & I'm a lot more removed from it. I'm afraid I won't get my point across as well. I sobbed through half of my story the last time.

The part I'm having the hardest time with is how I address the fact, that the woman that hit them...was charged with 2 counts of Intoxicated Manslaughter & walked away with a felony DWI...no jail time & not even a suspended license. In some ways it brings to light the failure in the judicial system, but in others it says "See if you drink & drive & kill someone, well its not THAT bad".

The other woman that presented with me last time (& I assume she will again, she does just about every one of them), lost her son when he was 16 I think? His friend was driving drunk. His friend walked away & her son died. She spends about 5 total minutes on her really heartbreaking story & the other 15 minutes of her presentation talking about kids having morals & responsibility & logic.

Both Jon & I agreed that she might be getting blank stares from some of these 16 & 17 year olds. I decided last time to focus instead on the sheer shock value of losing two parents at once, at a young age. Going as far as to give some of my sisters perspective, since she was 14 at the time. There were tons of kids sobbing at the end of my part & I really think *that's* the way you reach a highschooler. Not with a "You should be more responsible then that" speech.

Maybe I'm wrong?

On a lighter note, I booked our vacation yesterday. I'm so flippin' excited about that. We are going to Lincoln, NH. I know how did we come about staying in NH? Well, we planned on going back to the place we spent our honeymoon. However, the timeshare we use (MIL's & FIL's) didn't have dates available into May yet.

I kept waiting & they just never were coming up. I was afraid that either A) I couldn't give enough notice or B) they were going to jack the price when they fianally gave them. We paid $1100 for the week when we stayed for our honeymoon. Soo! We decided to look in NH & go for something "new".

My Step Dad grew up in Littleton, NH & Lincoln is apparently only 25 minutes from there. Its also 2 hours from Boston & 2 hours from Portsmouth, which is a coast town that has some good shopping I guess?

Yay for vacations!