Prom Photo Contest, $500 Grand Prize

21 Reasons, with the help of Tim and Eva in the Morning on Maine’s Coast, 93.1, is announcing a “best” prom photo contest—with a cash prize of $500 to the most awkward, uh, winner!

Wow, Times Have Changed, and for the better. Thank goodness underage drinking is going the way of big hair, ruffled shirts, and bad fashion!

To celebrate the fact that underage drinking rates in Portland have been declining since 1995, 21 Reasons, an underage drinking prevention coalition, is sponsoring a Prom Photo Contest. Why? Since underage drinking can harm the developing brain (which actually stops developing at the ripe old age of 25!), this decline in drinking rates is cause for celebration!

Who can enter? Anyone over 29 can enter, because anyone 29 and older was in high school before 1995.

How do I enter? Go into the attic and find your most awesome prom photo, then go to www.21reasons.org and follow the simple directions. It’s so easy even a baby boomer can do it.

What can I win? There are two ways to win! The first 21 photo entries will receive a $10 music download card. The photo with the most votes will receive $500!

HOW do I win? When your photo is posted online, 21 Reasons will send you a link to it. You send the link to ALL your friends and family, and then they can vote for your photo as the best! On-line voting opens up April 12th. Photos posted as they come in until then.

Why should I participate? Not only is this a fun contest with amazing prizes, but spreading the word about how “times have changed” will help parents, and everyone else, realize when it comes to underage drinking we’re headed in the right direction. There are more statistics and information below.

Overview:
• Accepting photos for two weeks between March 29th and April 11th.
• On-line Voting begins April 12th and lasts one week until April 19th.
• Winner Announced Tuesday, April 20th. LIVE Tim and Eva in the Morning on Maine’s Coast, 93.1- WMGX.
• Winning photo to be used in a Prom and Graduation season reminder card to be distributed through area participating tux, florists and limousine companies. The cards will be distributed with each boutonniere, corsage, or limousine contract. Messages on the card will remind parents that most youth don’t drink and that parents can and do have the power to enforce underage drinking rules.



Additional Information:

According the Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey, most youth don’t drink. In fact, only 28% say they have had a drink in the past 30 days. That’s down from almost 40% in 1995. In addition, a recent Parent Phone Survey sponsored by 21 Reasons revealed more Portland parents are concerned about underage drinking and taking concrete steps to prevent it. This includes:
• talking with their teens about alcohol
• asking if alcohol will be at parties
• calling party hosts to make sure alcohol will not be provided

Due to modern brain scanning technology, we know more now than ever before about the harm underage drinking can cause the developing brain.

Together, we are making underage drinking a thing of the past…just like those tacky prom dresses.

For more tips and information, visit: http://www.21reasons.org

Canadian drinking

Often in our work to prevent underage drinking, we hear the argument that countries with a lower minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) have fewer problems with alcohol. And since Canada is our nearest neighbor—and the Canadian MLDA is 19 in most provinces (18 in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec)—we thought we’d share recent research results about teen drinking in Canada—and compare them with stats from Portland, Maine.

	Manitoba 2009	Portland 2008
% of 9th graders who drank in the past month	39%	32%
% of 12th graders who drank in the past month	69%	52%
% of 9th graders who binge drank recently	19% (within 30 days)	18% (within 2 weeks)
% of 12th graders who binge drank recently	51% (within 30 days)	31% (within 2 weeks)

These statistics demonstrate that a lower drinking age doesn’t improve alcohol-related problems for youth—in fact it increases the likelihood that younger teens will drink and drink more heavily.

The Manitoban government is addressing these issues “by boosting fines, cranking up public-awareness campaigns and convening a summit on the issue. [They] also vowed [March 4] to beef up enforcement of laws preventing the sale of tobacco to minors, while boosting fines for offending clerks and retailers”(source)—exactly the kind of environmental prevention efforts** that can help lower those rates.

**”Prevention aimed at the environment is based on the community systems perspective that views a community as a set of persons engaged in shared social, cultural, political, and economic processes.” [http://wch.uhs.wisc.edu/docs/SIG/fisher-EnvironmentalPreventionStrategies.pdf] Environmental prevention basically looks to change the context that youth live in to support their healthy choices.