Underage Drinking Tackled by Coalition

On Thursday, June 27th, the Colton Coalition for Change, a coalition dedicated to reducing underage alcohol use and drug abuse, recognized everyone who contributed to the “Think-O No Drink-O” campaign that aimed to reduce underage drinking during prom and graduation season. “Think-O No Drink-O” was created in response to the community’s youth preparing for what they called “Cinco de Drink-O,” a name given to a weekend in which many high school proms and the Mexican-American holiday Cinco de Mayo were taking place. The Colton Coalition for Change (CCC) and the “Think-O No Drink-O” campaign recognized all of those who contributed including city officials such as Council Member Frank J. Navarro, Council Member David Torro, Mayor Zamora, and Interim City Manager Stephen Compton, community volunteers, school district officials, parents, media personnel including Margie Miller, and the Colton Police Department, who during the targeted weekend, issued one $1000 citation to a celebration that was not properly monitoring underage drinking. The recognition ceremony opened with a photo presentation of CCC working on different aspects of the campaign while everyone enjoyed their plates of food catered by Nickelodeon Pizza. Mirza Andrade-Martinez was the first to speak and presented recognitions for all of the people involved in the organization of the Coalition and the campaign. Martinez stated to everyone who participated that, “as a community you stood together as one.” Among those being recognized was Maria Fernanda Torres, a founding member of the CCC. Torres shared her personal story with the crowd that encompassed how she was labeled an “at risk” child by the school and explained that without the support from your community, it would not be hard for any child to become unsuccessful. Torres also shared that she now wants to take an active role in bettering her community each day. This was the reason that she devoted so much time to the CHANGE program that CCC tackled in the past. CHANGE was a campaign that worked to highlight the importance of the community in a child’s life and had a skit that was performed with city officials and community members to emphasize that importance. Eileen Gomez, City Clerk and 2-year member of CCC, also spoke at the event and began by thanking everyone involved and presenting the recognitions to numerous government officials. Gomez stated before she called any names, “I am very proud of the council I serve with.” After all of the city officials involved were recognized, families who had taken vows to have alcohol-free celebrations during the “Think-O No Drink-O” campaign were recognized as examples for the community to follow. Directly after that were the recognitions of the countless volunteers who helped tackle what many considered the hardest part of the campaign, spreading the word. Over 2,000 printed pieces of information about the campaign were handed out to the community by these volunteers, despite many of them having no means of transportation other than by foot. Council Member Frank Navarro comments on their contributions: “When they say they were going door-to-door, they meant it. Those papers were all around my community, thanks to them.” Students were also honored from a group of young women who call themselves what translates from Spanish as “Girls with Motivation.” The group has been cooperating with CCC for over two years and is determined to change the currently accepted normality of underage drinking.