Students’ impaired driving messages are in the bag

Prince Edward County OPP, Picton LCBO and St. Gregory Catholic School staff are pictured with the winning entry for the LCBO’s Think of Me campaign this year. From left, are Scott Weir, Picton LCBO manager, Const. Aaron Miller, Gail MacDougall, LRA, Charlene Landry-Kyte, principal, Sgt. John Hatch, Detachment Commander, and Michelle Lavender, LCBO.

Heartfelt reminders to LCBO customers to stop drinking and driving are in the bag thanks to students at St. Gregory’s Catholic School in Picton.

This year, the Picton LCBO store and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Quinte joined Prince Edward OPP to promote the LCBO’s ‘Think of Me’ grassroots campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of impaired driving (alcohol and drugs).

“We have a problem in Prince Edward County,” said John Hatch, Prince Edward OPP Detachment Commander, who was thrilled the students showed such interest in promoting the campaign to state drinking and driving is not acceptable.

The LCBO provided blank bottle bags to be handed out to students following an anti-drinking and driving presentation from Hatch and constable Aaron Miller, Community Safety Officer.

Hatch said he told the students he needed their help to promote anti-drinking and driving.

“I told them, ‘I need you help to come up with messaging that’s going to work. I need you to draw your own message that is eventually going to be given out at the LCBO, so when your moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas are going through, they are going to see this message and it’s going to hit home with them about not drinking and driving.”

The creation by Evelyn Mascarenhas, a Grade 5 student at St. Greg’s, was chosen to be forwarded to the LCBO’s provincial contest.

One design – created by Evelyn Mascarenhas, a Grade 5 student at St. Gregs – was chosen Tuesday to be forwarded to the LCBO’s provincial contest. There, the winning design will be printed on more than 50,000 LCBO bags and distributed to customers at all LCBO stores across Ontario during the Victoria Day long weekend, 2020.

Her message, showing a vehicle with a bottle of alcohol crossed out, stated ‘Don’t drink and drive… It takes Lives’ and included a group of people with messages that read ‘Think Before You Drink’ and ‘Arrive Alive’.

About 80 students at St. Greg’s designed more than 100 bags for the contest.

Some messages stated:
“No Drinking and Driving – Home for the Holidays – You booze, You cruise, You lose.”

‘Think of me and everyone’s family.”

and “No Alcohol. No Drugs. No Victims.”

Scott Weir, store manager at the Picton LCBO said all the bags will make their way into customer’s hands as their holiday purchases will be wrapped in the powerful messages from the students to stop getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.

The students at St. Greg’s will also receive a pizza party from the Prince Edward OPP in partnership with MADD Quinte.

Weir, and Hatch both noted they hope to see students from more schools come on board to participate in future campaigns.

Some examples of the students’ designs: