A very emotional launch of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Project Red Ribbon campaign on Wednesday at Widdifield Secondary School.

On hand to tell stories were victims including Elaine Commanda who lost her brother to a drunk driver.

She says that experience never leaves her.

‘It effects your life forever. It changes who you are but it’s important to tell stories like this because we want to avoid further tragedy.”
OPP inspector Scott Hlady is the manager of the Traffic and Marine program for the Northeast Region.

He says so many people are impacted by drunk drivers and they wanted to remind students what can happen with 1 bad decision.

“It effects friends and family of the people that died or who were injured. It effects our front line emergency response units. They have to deal with the carnage on our highways on a regular basis and it’s long lasting.”

He says they wanted to remind students there are options out there and the consequences aren’t worth making the wrong decision.

“There’s calling a loved one, calling a friend, apps on your phone to come pick you up.”

Erin Celebre is the president of the Nipissing chapter. She says raising awareness on this issue to young people is extremely important.

“4 people are kiilled every day and 200 are otherwise impacted. That’s a massive number. We need to reduce that so these sorts of events are crucial to awareness.”
This is the 30th anniversary of the Red Ribbon campaign.

Filed under: MADD, Red Ribbon campaign, Widdifield