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IMPACT plans for summer months
, Editor
06-14-2009
IMPACT Ennis is headed into the summer vacation period with plans to keep up their fight against teenage alcohol abuse.
Fighting the issue during the summer will mean increasing awareness of the ills of alcohol abuse among minors and its consequences and continuing to plan active enforcement. The Ennis Independent School District police force has recently gotten on board with the organization, and the results are encouraging to Jane Mize, coalition coordinator.
“We’re so glad to have them involved with us,” Mize said. “(Chief) Ross (Jones) is just incredible, and we’re able to do so much more.”
In the last weeks of school, EISD police, Ennis law enforcement and IMPACT Ennis staged two alcohol sales stings and arrested two local merchants for selling to minors illegally.
Jones said the results were encouraging — having only one vendor sell to a minor in each sting shows the community and its merchants are aware of the law. He said IMPACT Ennis, with its efforts to inform locals about the law, has had a strong effect in helping curb alcohol sales to minors.
More stings and enforcement efforts are in the works, but volunteers are needed since school is out, which is a time Jones knows is ripe for alcohol and drug abuse.
The other front in the effort is awareness, and how much the community knows about IMPACT Ennis and the details of the law is still in question. Organizers have plans for that.
“Our biggest problem is social access,” Mize said. “It’s not so much the retailers. Most of them do a great job of carding. The problem is other people giving alcohol to minors.”
To feel out the community’s knowledge on the subject, IMPACT Ennis is organizing a survey to distribute over the summer and poll the community — both online and in print.
“We want to see how the people in Ennis perceive the dangers of underage drinking and if they understand what the consequences are of providing alcohol to minors,” Mize said. “That’s what the survey will tell us, and it will help us developing our strategic planning so we know what direction we need to go in.”
The IMPACT Ennis board met Friday to discuss details of the planned survey, and more information will be coming in the weeks leading up to an IMPACT-hosted community picnic in July.
Jones said in his work in the district, where he teaches and mentors to young people in an effort to show them the dangers of negative behaviors like drug and alcohol abuse, he feels like the impact of bad choices is sometimes not hitting home.
“Assuming that nothing will happen has no survivability rate,” Jones said. “Sometimes, it takes a tragic event to wake people up, and it seems more so these days.”
Want to help?
IMPACT Ennis is looking for teenagers between the ages of 16-18 years old with no police record and a desire to fight teenage drinking for alcohol sales stings for the summer months. For more information, call EISD Police Chief Ross Jones at 972-872-3509.
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