February 2000 Newsletter

Red Ribbon Run
Thanks to all of the volunteers who turned out for the 5th Annual Red Ribbon Run on New Year's Eve. The run was a huge success with more than 550 runners finishing. The day was beautiful and nearly 300 runners, who had not pre-registered, participated. This made it quite a challenge for the volunteers who did a tremendous job of getting all of the paperwork finished and all of the runners on the course on time.

Mark Your Calendars
The volunteers who helped at the Red Ribbon Run had a great time. Now you have an opportunity to volunteer a few week-end hours with MADD and have a great time too. June 3 & 4, we will again be operating the Designated Driver booths at Vintage Virginia. We need about 60 volunteers to help out. Then on October 7 & 8, we will again be doing the Kmart Kids Race Against Drugs. This event will require about 40 volunteers. Please keep your calendars clear to help us with these events. Not only do these events help get the chapter revenue, but they are a major way that we spread the word to not drink and drive.

President's Letter
Anyone who has called the MADD office over the past decade has probably had the good fortune to talk with Kathy Cerio. She has been our Rock of Gibraltar. Kathy has seen boards and staff come and go. Now Kathy has decided to retire and we will miss her greatly. For the past ten years, Kathy has been the one person who knew how to get things done. She knew whom to call or where to look whenever a problem arose. She was always willing to go the extra mile to make sure that our victim services and educational programs were performed without a hitch. On behalf of the chapter board and staff, I wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement. She will be sorely missed around the office. She has left some big shoes to fill.

Election of Officers
The next meeting of the Northern Virginia Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving will be held at 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 8, 2000, at the chapter office 900 South Washington Street, Suite 202, Falls Church, VA 22046. The primary purpose of the meeting will be to elect the chapter officers for the Fiscal Year 2000-2001.

PosterESSAY Contest
The flyers for the PosterESSAY Contest have been mailed to all of the public and private schools in the Northern Virginia area. Now we need entries. To make sure that the most talented kids win the great prizes (Dinner Cruises on the Odyssey, Savings Bonds from Burke & Herbert Bank, and Movie Tickets from AMC Theaters), we need your help. Call the school nearest to you and ask if the MADD PosterESSAY Contest is being conducted. If it is not, call the MADD office and give us the name and address of the person at the school who should be running it and we will mail him or her a personal copy of the flyer.

High School Students Needed
The MADD National Youth Summit will be held in our area September 29 - October 4, 2000. We have gotten almost no response from Northern Virginia. We hope to have one high school student from each of the U.S. Congressional Districts. These delegates will develop a series of recommendations for preventing underage drinking and they will present them to national policy makers. If you know of any high school student who would be interested in this exciting opportunity, have him or her call the office, 703-352-3944, before February 25th.

Victim Advocate Training Offered
Do you want to help victims of drunk drivers? If so, you should sign up for the Virginia State Victim Assistance Institute to be held in Charlottesville on March 24-26, 2000. Upon completion of the course, you will be qualified to help victims get through the aftermath of their drunk driving crash. To get more information, call the MADD office at 703-352-3944.

Executive Director's Letter
Instead of a usual letter, I am writing you to ask you to do me a big (but very easy) favor. We recently received the current membership list for the chapter from MADD's national headquarters. We have printed labels with the membership expiration date on them and stuck them right here. If you see this text and no label, it means that you were not listed as a chapter member as of January 2000. Please call the office or send in your form today.

If your expiration date has passed or your label is missing, it means that MADD National does not think that you are a member of our chapter and we really want you back. So if this applies to you, please call us to report an error or use the membership form to renew today. Thank you.