Each sticker features a strong reminder: “It is illegal to provide alcohol to a person under 21. If they can’t buy it, don’t supply it. Penalty up to $1,000 fine and 6 months in jail.”
“Maybe some people will actually get the idea that they shouldn’t give alcohol to minors,” said Lydia Reece, a Fairfield High School sophomore and first-year member of the coalition, which includes 60 students from the high school and Fairfield Freshman School. “I feel like parents feel like their children will like them better or respect them more if they provide them with alcohol.”
An initiative of the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Fairfield, Sticker Shock is meant to bring awareness about underage drinking, one of the four coalition priorities, according to coalition coordinator Deborah Neyer.
About 46 percent of high school seniors in Fairfield report trying alcohol at some point and 26 percent of seniors report using it regularly, Neyer said. They report that alcohol is easy to get from friends, older siblings, or parents, many of whom are unaware of the consequences.
“This (Sticker Shock initiative) really gives us a unique opportunity to … involve the youth and let the vendors know that they also are invested in having underage drinking not be an issue,” Neyer said. “Even more importantly, we want parents to know going into the spring season when there are multiple celebrations, graduations and those types of things coming up that there are … pretty strong penalties.”
She said it is important that adults teach youth that alcohol is a drug and using it can cause them to make poor decisions that can derail their goals and dreams.
Having minors be the ones spreading that message helps reinforce its importance, organizers said.
“I think it’s important for students to be involved so that (people) know it’s not just adults caring, but students also care that during spring break and other activities that we don’t want drinking to happen under age at our school,” said Fairfield senior Adam Halsey, a coalition member since ninth grade. “We want our school to be a better place.”
Stopping by Dixie Foodmart as students carried out Sticker Shock there Sunday, John Cole of Hamilton labeled the effort “a pretty good” idea to combat underage drinking.
“I don’t think they should be able to be buying or getting anything like that,” he said. “Kids are still going to school.”
Sunday’s effort saw the students affixing labels at United Dairy Farmers locations on Dixie Highway and Pleasant Avenue, as well as Dixie Foodmart and Kwik N Kold on Nilles Road.
Monday’s Sticker Shock campaign is scheduled to take place at Minnick’s Drive Thru locations on Symmes Road and Dixie Highway, as well as Jay’s Food Mart on Winton Road, UDF on Tylersville and Gas Depot, Mobil and Sunoco, all located on Dixie Highway.
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