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Help High School Graduates Celebrate Safely
The first Project Graduation happened thirty years ago when parents and educators in Maine, after a total of 18 died people in alcohol-related crashes over two graduation seasons, sought an alternative to graduation parties that permitted and sometimes encouraged teenaged drinking. Maine's first Project Graduation was such a success that high schools throughout the state have adopted similar programs, and Project Graduation has become a generic name for the chemical free graduation parties promoting a new tradition--celebrating safely!
Please help us keep our graduates safe--Chipin!
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The Bigger Picture 11/30/07
In the past month, a multitude of recent high school graduates from both Washington County and around the state have been arrested for consuming or possessing alcohol. Some were attending parties in homes or camps, some were driving home intoxicated.
Three weeks ago, an 18 year-old student at Maine Maritime was killed while driving back to campus. Police said alcohol was a factor. Two weeks ago, and 18 year-old Auburn man died from acute alcohol poisoning. This past week an 18 year-old freshman, an all-state rookie team soccer star at UMO, died in an alcohol related incident at a friend's Portland home.
Three in three weeks.
Project Graduation promotes safety and responsibility for graduates to help them better cope with the big changes they will face their first year out of high school.
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Did you Know?
People who start drinking as teenagers are much more likely to wrestle with alcohol dependency as adults than their peers who wait until their twenties to drink alcohol.
Over a third of the alcohol industry's product is consumed by under-age drinkers and proplem adult drinkers---those with alcoholism, dependency or repeated personal or criminal alcohol-related problems.
There is a growing national movement to limit the marketing of alcohol on TV because the industry is unable to follow its own guidelines against marketing to youth.
Project Gradution is a part of that movement to protect our youth through by promoting a safer and healthier social environment.
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