SADD

SADD Moderator: Bob Sauerbrey

Office: (513) 741-2312

Standard Meeting Times: first and the third Tuesdays of every month; meetings are held in room 202 and begin at 2:50.

SADD News

October 2005

We discussed the following at the September 20 SADD meeting. Afterwards I wrote Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters through his assistant Bill Ranaghan. After describing our educational endeavors at La Salle, our mission through the Medicine Show to the grade schools, and our sponsorship of the Frosh/Soph Mardis Gras Scrub Dance and the Afterprom, I told about the future plans La Salle’s SADD members had proposed. We have requested help in funding these programs through confiscated money seized in anti-drug operations. In the past, we have asked for up to $8000 and last year received $5000, none of which could be used for the dance or Afterprom. I am trying to convince the prosecutor that these evens are highly educational and have demonstrated to many that we can enjoy each others’ company without the crutches that alcohol and drugs create.
The following is copied from that letter with the costs eliminated.

At the initiative of three of our then juniors, now seniors, we started a "Saturday Night Service" project. Because of complexities that have arisen through state law, I really cannot send students to a particular place to do work unless I am with them and tri-location is not one of my strengths. Our students though, have sought out homes for seniors or for the disabled and become part of their Saturday evenings. Saturday is a difficult time for students because there's little organized for them to do and also for seniors since families tend to be tending to their own needs on Saturdays.
At one place, we found that the most pressing need was that seniors were getting computers from families and that they had no idea how to put them together or to use them. So our kids got them wired and on-line; they would set up a free e-mail account through hotmail.com or the like and even get them into the World Wide Web with free versions of Juno. The kids would leave about 9 and go get pizza or the like.

Bob Sauerbrey

September 2005

A Note from La Salle’s SADD moderator :

It’s been said that we teach what we ourselves need to learn. I found this out Wednesday, September 14 when I was involved in an accident that I had caused because I was unwilling to do the prudent thing, the wise thing, and instead acted without clarity. Only chance or providence kept me from severe injury to myself, and, worse than that, I had put others in mortal danger.

I had left school about 3:30 p.m. and had a couple errands to run before going home. On the way home, I realized that I was tired and sleepy, so I pulled over into a parking lot, got out of the care, and walked around for a bit. I then got back in the car and headed for home only three miles away. I know now that I should have been to take a nap right then and there or I should have called someone who could take me home, returning to get the car later on.

I don’t remember turning onto Salt Fork Road , the last through road before I would get to my own street. The next thing I knew, the car was wrapping itself around a telephone pole; my speed was only about 25 m.p.h. because Salt Fork twists around—any greater speed could have been fatal for me as well as for others. . The seat belts acted just as they should and pushed me back into the seat; I apparently hadn’t hit my body on any part of the car, even though the 20+ people, who came see whether they could help, didn’t want me to move.

The police arrived, I started calling those who could help, and soon the car was towed to our garage whose owner drove me home. So that is that.

Reading this may make some of you say, “Wow. You were lucky.” Luck has nothing to do with this. The more true statement would be, “Wow. Now that was stupid.” It began with a bad decision and, gratefully, only demolished a car and gave our chiropractor some extra work. The same decision could have had far different results: If the car had moved left rather than right, I would have been in oncoming traffic which may have had devastating consequences. With Sunman Dearborn schools on “slow time,” school buses were dropping off kids in the neighborhood at the same time as I had the accident; a child walking on the side of the road may have died because of my imprudent decision.

To drive when one knows he or she is impaired is to endanger everyone. Statistics have shown that a good number of freeway accidents, especially truck accidents, involve drivers who fall asleep at the wheel; the death toll from these accidents is extremely high.

Perhaps my telling all of you about the way my decision could have led to horrendous results may make one person realize that trying to get home on time is less important than getting there at all. Being late may annoy someone. Its alternative may well be fatal.

Take good care of yourselves and each other.

Bob Sauerbrey

SADD