 by Arielle Tselikis
Old Orchard Beach High School, Class President
MYAN Youth Training & Projects Coordinator
Every year, students are faced with the excitement and preparation for Prom week. While picking out dresses and tuxes are the traditional exercises, it is also important to be aware of the issues your school and community are facing. At my school, Old Orchard Beach High School, our Natural Helpers took this time to collaborate with the faculty and community.
In order to ensure a safe environment and raise awareness about safety issues, our youth partnered with the Underage Drinking Task Force, part of Communities for Children. Sharing the stage with Steve Rowe, the Maine Attorney General, we were able to give a youth perspective to the parents and business owners at the Alcohol Summit held in our cafeteria. All of the parents were eager to hear what our Natural Helpers group was doing to support their efforts. While we were raising awareness within the school by speaking daily on the intercom and providing such tools as the Convincer and a real crashed car on our school grounds, Communities for Children was working to send letters to all of the local hotels and motels about the dangers and consequences of renting to teens during Prom week. The parents and faculty seemed reassured that there were students backing their decisions. They appreciated our efforts, and we had yet another safe, accident-free Prom week.
In our case, it was important to have community partnership between youth and adults, not only for parents of schoolchildren, but for business owners and the children themselves. Our group was able to partner with adults, and by doing so, we created a positive, fun Prom week for our students and reassured adults about student safety.
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