Safe and Sober Prom Night

Safe and Sober is a non-profit organization, under the Mercy Health Foundation Springfield, that creates awareness about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and encourages teens to lead a safe and sober lifestyle. Founded as Safe and Sober Prom Night, students take a pledge-a written commitment to their parents- to stay drug and alcohol free on prom night. Students are given incentives to take and keep their commitment by being awarded tee shirts, wrist bands and the schools with the highest participation in each category receive a $1,000.

Since its inception in 2004 the Safe and Sober program has reached more than 30,000 students at more than 30 different schools in Missouri. Many high schools combine the program with other activities including assemblies and docudramas of accident scenes involving drunk drivers.

Car crashes kill more teens during the weekends of prom and graduation season than any other time of the year. Since 2008, young (under 21) impaired drivers have been involved in more than 2300 motor vehicle crashes in Missouri. The Safe and Sober Program is designed to arm students, parents and teachers with the information to keep this fun and exciting time of year from turning to tragedy.

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Testimonials

In 2009 Glendale won with 90% of our students taking the pledge. Of course, everyone is a winner with this program. We are very excited about the whole project. It gave the seniors something to focus on at the end. We created a poster with a thermometer for the goal. This created a buzz when they usually have senioritis, and really brought some excitement to the end of the year.

-Teresa Wise, Assistant Principal, Glendale High School

Our schools are very fortunate to have community-minded businesses and individuals like Kurt Larson who truly care about our children. We will never know how many accidents may be prevented or lives saved by this innovative program.

-Morey Mechlin, former Executive Director, Springfield Public Schools Foundation

It’s actually an impressive effort to help students have fun safely. It would be good to see this Safe and Sober Prom Night concept spread to other communities in the Ozarks in the future.

-Editorial Staff of the Springfield News-Leader, March 24, 2005

How refreshing and encouraging it is to see the community reach out to its youth in an attempt to set an example and keep them from harm. The youth of this generation are in dire need of positive reinforcement of qualities and behaviors which will help them develop into the leaders of tomorrow

-Kathryn Vaggaly, Parkview High School

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