NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Chapter Newsletter
November 1999

Celebrate New Year's Eve With MADD

On December 31, 1999, families across the area will ring in the year 2000 with MADD and First Night Alexandria, the non-alcoholic, New Year's Eve celebration of the Arts. For the sixth year, residents and visitors alike can join the revelry in historic Old Town. The festivities begin at 4:00 PM with the 5th Annual 5K Red Ribbon Run and Pledge Walk, sponsored by MADD. First Night's thirty-minute performances start at 6:00 PM. The evening ends with the grand finale fireworks display at Midnight at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.

First Night Alexandria celebrates the New Year by turning the city of Alexandria into a stage, as artists perform in storefronts, on street corners and in indoor performance sites along King and Washington Streets in historic Old Town. An exciting urban festival is created that is family-oriented and appeals to all ages.

This year's event includes Magician Walter Glod, swing-a-billy and blues by hometown favorites The Spoilers, All Natural African Drummers and Dancers, and Interactive Comedy and Mime Theater by the Comedy Channel's award-winning troupe, The Jokesters. The diverse array of artists and performances also includes The Irish Breakfast Band, the area's very popular Scottish Fiddle Champion Bonnie Ridout, The Glass Heart Puppet Theater performing a special millenium-themed show, funk and rock-fusion musicians Bottomlands, German Polka and Alpine music and dancers, the unique sounds of Karl Kalbaugh's haunting Didgeredoo (an aboriginal instrument), dance, bluegrass, tribal blues, country and original folk music and much more.

First Night is hosting the final event of Alexandria's year-long celebration of the city's 250th anniversary of its 1749 founding. Birthday cake and coffee will be served at the Masonic Memorial, and special commemorative items marking the anniversary will be available. The Alexandria Chorale will present the original "Alexandria Suite" to honor the occasion.

First Night buttons, which provide admission to all performances, will go on sale December 1st at all Northern Virginia Giant and St. Elmo's Coffee Pub locations for $8 if purchased before Christmas, $12 after December 25, and $5 with a coupon from the Red Ribbon Run runners packet. Run applications are available at participating Gold's Gyms. First Night admission is free for children under six. First Night Alexandria made its debut in 1994. Last year it attracted over 10,000 revelers, ringing in the New Year along with 200 communities worldwide hosting First Night celebrations. Find out more about First Night Alexandria at www.firstnightalexandria.org.

MADD Needs Your Help

We may be MADD, but we are not mad enough!

Charles Dickens said it 140 years ago: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." That is how we are at the Northern Virginia Chapter of MADD. Although we are doing more educational programs, offering more victim services, and providing more support to our local law enforcement agencies than ever before, we are digging deeper and deeper into our cash reserves than ever before. It is up to each member to decide if keeping a MADD chapter in Northern Virginia is important.

Last spring, we held the Virginia State Victim Assistance Institute right here in Northern Virginia. We had nearly 20 participants learn how to assist victims of drunk driving crashes. We brought in instructors from as far away as Virginia Beach and Roanoke. But, only two students from Northern Virginia completed the course. In this area, with more than two million citizens, we need more than two new victim advocates every few years. Will you help?

Not a week goes by that we do not receive a telephone call from a citizen complaining about the laxity of the court system. These complaints range from stories about multiple DWI offenders getting little more punishment than probation to stories of judges reducing guilty DWI pleas. There are more than a dozen courtrooms in our area but we have had only three new volunteers to become court monitors in the past year. Court monitors gather the statistics that allow us to speak out about this issue. Will you help?

We have numerous opportunities to set up booths at fairs, schools and shopping areas in the past year. We have had numerous requests to provide speakers and literature to companies and agencies to discuss MADD and our programs. While we have been able to meet many of these requests, often by sending staff members, we have had to turn down many because we could not get a volunteer to commit the time to do it. We need volunteers to help us educate the public. Will you help?

In our recent newsletters, I have mentioned our need for financial help from our members. Each of the newsletters has included a form to make it easy to send in a contribution. After each newsletter, I have dutifully checked ou