2009 Joshua Project Beach Bash

Just got back from the Second Annual Joshua Project Beach Bash. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year. The weather cooperated and we had a great time with music from The Sofa Kings, a silent auction, two raffles including the grand prize: an HP Laptop. John Sizer, Lead Crash Scene Investigator for Kane County, also made an appearance with the special goggles he uses in his class (Alive at 25) that mimics what how you would react if you were intoxicated and trying to take one of his sobriety tests. A fun time was had by everyone and we have the pictures to prove it.



2009 JPX3 Beach Bash

The Second Annual Beach Bash

Please join us on Sunday, July 26th, at the Second Annual Joshua Project Beach Bash. This fundraising event is our biggest of the year and will include a silent auction, and your entree fee ($25) will automatically enter you into our raffle. Our grand prize this year is a beautiful 16-inch HP laptop with all the goodies: an AMD X2 Dual Core Processor (2.2 GHz speed), 3 GB memory, 320 GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, DVD read/writer with LightScribe technology, web cam, wireless card, and lots more. This PC is a beauty (picked it out myself).

Come out and enjoy yourself for a good cause. The Beach Bash will be held at the back patio of O'Brien's restaurant (where Josh used to work), at 12 N River St, in Batavia IL from 1pm to 4pm.

A great way to spend an afternoon.

Rethinking Drinking

I came across this website from the National Institute of Health, Health and Human Services, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Its called Rethinking Drinking, and its a website that educates on drinking, your risk of being a heavier drinker based on current drinking habits, and on education and tools and links to groups and organizations where you could get some additional information and help. There is a great PDF download that talks about the dangers of drinking and educates on what a 'standard' drink is, and patterns of risky drinking behavior. Their statistics come from a nationwide survey of adults 18 and older (yes, I know, the legal drinking age is 21, but that has not stopped younger folks from drinking). It is an excellent resource and one worth your time to look at and review. It might also be a good link to forward to your incoming college freshman, or retuning student. We can not have too much education in the field of alcohol and alcohol abuse. Here is the link: Rethinking Drinking

Alive At 25

Cheryl Sutton (President, The Joshua Project), and I attended a class given by Waubaunsee Community College entitled Alive at 25. Its goal is to teach young drivers how to drive more safely, and to try to instill in them the idea that all choices have consequences.

The Alive at 25 concept began in Colorodo and is supported by the National Safety Council. In Kane County, the class is given as part of a requirment of probation to youths that have received a speeding or other traffic violation.

The class is 4 hours and helps students identify the seriousness of their actions and lets young drivers know that there are consequences to any action and that it makes good sense to think about how you will conduct yourself, and your passengers, while behind the wheel of a car. The program also delves into driving while under the influence, and pictures are show of various auto accidents that were caused by alcohol, drugs, and also just taking your eyes off the road due to distraction.

The class we attended was taught by John Sizer, a 32 year verteran of the police force, now working in Sugar Grove as the lead crash investagator. The car crash examples he shared in class were examples of crashes he had personally been involved with in his investigations. According to John, since its introduction, the class has reduced the number of fatal crashes by young drivers by as much as 20 - 30%.

The Joshua Project got involved when a friend told Cheryl that Josh Sutton's accident was used as an example.

The Alive At 25 program is currently being given as a result of a traffic violation (usually speeding) but Waubaunsee Community College would like to start giving the class as part of the driver's education curriculum at the schools around the area. Kaneland High School has already made this class mandatory for all driver education students.

This class teaches all of the things The Joshua Project is about: self responsibility; that there are consequences for your actions; and also not to drink and drive. The Joshua Project is currenlty looking at ways to try to get involved to give this class more exposure, and to get more schools to give this class as part of the curriculum for driver's education classes, and to try and make this more proactive and teach kids these things before they get into an accident, or recieve a traffic violation. We will keep you updated on our progress. In the meantime, I have put a link to the Alive at 25 web page on the right.

Cab Angels Launched!!!!

This weekend The Joshua Project launched our long-awaited program: Cab Angels. Cab Angels is a program that partners with local cab companies and restaurants. Its goal is to give restaurant owners the ability to offer free cab rides to their patrons who are not in a position to drive home due to excessive drinking.

Our launch includes partnering with two local cab companies: 001 Choice Cab in Geneva, Il, and Fox Cab in St.Charles, Il. We have also piloted two restaurants. The restaurant at which we launched this weekend was O'Brien's Pub and Grill in Batavia, IL. We will soon also launch at Old Towne Pub and Eatery in Geneva, IL.

This is a pilot program, and we will be monitoring the results on a regular basis to modify the program as we identify what works, and what doesn't.

Assuming a successful pilot, we will launch with more restaurants and perhaps more cab companies.

Cab Angels is sponsored by the generous contributions of our donors. If you think this program is of value and you would like to donate, click here.

We are very excited about this program and look forward to expanding it to other bars and restaurants. Look for our logo at participating restaurants and let the restaurant owners know you support their support of Cab Angels. Our logo is above.

Debating Lowering the Drinking Age

60 Minutes did it again with a great news story debating the latest attempts to lower the drinking age. I have blogged about this before and only bring it up again to identify yet another excellent news story by 60 minutes. Leslie Stahl interviews one of the university presidents who created a group of university presidents whose charter is to change the laws and lower the drinking age to 18 from the current 21. We at the Joshua Project do not support this due to the fact that there are a number of studies that show automobile deaths by drunk drivers increases dramatically and immediately when the drinking age falls.

The only good thing to come out of this debate is the fact that the idea of lowering the drinking age is being reviewed and debated again. The issue is out in the open once again to be debated by intelligent people. This is a good thing because it will cause folks to rethink their positions and confirm assumptions. It is very healthy to do that regularly and this debate is no exception.

However, that all said, assumptions have been revisited and positions restated, and I have concluded that I still think its a bad idea.

What do you think? Give me the pros and cons for lowering the drinking age. Here is the 60 Minutes news story.

About.com Alcoholism Resource

I ran across a website called About.com, that contains a lot of useful information about a lot of things. One particular area I saw was about alcoholism. This site had a list of other links including state-by-state drunk driving laws, an email course as to why you should not drive drunk (which I have not taken yet, but will), a blood alcohol calculator, and the list goes on and on.

I will be putting the link in our Helpful Resources list on the lower left hand column of my blog page as well, but for now you can access it by clicking here. Take a peek and let me know what you think.

DWI Deaths: Is It Murder?

CBS' excellent news program, 60 Minutes, had a story about a district attorney in Nassau County NY ,Kathleen Rice, who has and wants to continue to charge for murder, those drunk drivers who have killed people. This is unprecedented as in the past, these crimes have been charged with manslaugher, which is accidental death.  Ms. Rice is charging murder, which if convicted, carries a much stiffer penalty (ie longer prison sentences).  

Ms. Rice discusses that the laws need to be tougher because folks that are drinking and driving think they can get away with it without too much penalty.  This law would make them think twice, hopefully getting yet another drunk driver off the streets.  

I believe that the families of the victims of these crimes would tend to agree with this.  Their lives are affected forever due to a drunk driver.  The penalty does not currently seem appropriate for a convicted driver when they get only a few years in jail for causing the death of another person.  An interesting statistic would be to see how many DWI (Driving While under the Influence) arrests are repeat offenders.  This statistic should give us a good indication of whether or not the current laws and their penalties are acting as deterrent.  The 60 Minutes article begins by stating that even though there is more awareness and education, the DWI convictions have not gone down.  This would lead me to believe that the current laws are perhaps too lenient.  Here is the transcript of the 60 Minutes piece. 

Tougher Drunk Driving Law in IL

At the beginning of 2009, Illinois passed a tougher law and joins other states like Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska in madating the installation of a breathalzyer in the autos of those that have been convicted of a DUI.  This device will not allow a person to start their car if the device identifies that the driver's blood alcohol levels are above .0024% (in IL, the legal limit is .08%).   

The article goes on to say that the full cost of the installation, and the rental fees (about $100 per month) will all be the responsibility of the driver.  In addition, there are stiff penalties if the driver tries to circumvent the process (like getting someone else to blow into the device, or even driving a different car). 

I really like this law.  It makes lots of sense to help keep convicted drunk drivers off the road. While the law could be refined even more to, let's say, put the breathyzer in the car as soon as a person is found to be driving under the influence, instead of waiting until their license is revoked (currently there is a 45-day wait period in Illinois between the time someone is stopped and caught driving above the alcohol limt, and the time the license is revoked), its certainly a step in the right direction.    Here is the story that appeared in the Chicago Tribune.