If someone approaches you today and asks for your support of the Sumner County Community Drug Action Team, it may be because each of the nearly 200 persons who attended the Town Hall Meeting on underage drinking Tuesday night were encouraged to discuss the issue with five additional people through the day today.
    The Town Hall Meeting held at Wellington High School was a merger of  key community sectors who all deal with underage drinking — youth and parents, law enforcement and court services, school officials, community leaders, mental health and medical professionals, religious leaders, and more.
    The meeting opened with a show of talent from local youth, with songs and poetry relating to the effects of alcohol on youth. 
    One poem relating how young class members watch a friend’s casket taken underground ended with, “this is what happens to many alive when friends let friends drink and drive.”
    Later, during comments from area panelists, Sheri Baker-Bruster brought the message home with details of a car accident that happened just north of Wellington on Dec. 20, 2001.
    That evening, she and her father were hit nearly head-on by a drunk driver. The other driver and her father were both killed as a result of the crash, and Baker-Bruster now volunteers to speak as a DUI Victim Panelist to court-ordered offenders.
    Baker-Bruster is also serving as the planning grant coordinator for Sumner County, which is the recipient of a grant to reduce underage drinking which could bring in as much as half a million dollars to reduce underage drinking in Sumner County over the next three years.
    The Sumner County Community Drug Action Team began as the Community Drug Action Team three years ago, and in the fall of 2007 applied for grant funding through Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services.
    Based in part by community support, the statistics from Sumner County as a high-risk area for underage drinking led the state to select Sumner County in the competitive grant process which will be coupled with a nation-wide focus on underage drinking and substance abuse.
    Now, the SCCDAT group will begin training with the state in proven-effective measures which can be implemented in Sumner County and stand alone without grant funding after three years.
    Chad Childs will be working with SCCDAT through the Regional Prevention Center.
    Childs prevented information about the grant to the community members gathered at the meeting, and stressed the importance of the county coming together to change the parallel between substance use and the availability of alcohol to youth, community-favorable attitudes towards underage drinking, and individual or peer favorable attitudes towards drinking.
    “It seems too overwhelming to overcome,” he said.  “But this is something we’re all accountable for, as adults and youth... We need to hold each other responsible for what’s been going on in Sumner County and where we live.”
    Wellington Police Officer Bryan Stewart has made underage drinking his focus, and has been bringing the statistics and information about the laws on underage drinking, furnishing alcohol to minors, party hosting, and more into the community and schools.
    “Alcohol is by far the most used and abused drug among America’s teens,” Stewart said. “And I can’t stress this enough, alcohol is the leading cause of death among youth.”
    To learn more about the Sumner County Community Drug Action Team, contact Wellington High School Nurse Jane Norris or Wellington Elementary School Counselor Kim Hefley.