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Welcome to another issue of The SADDvocate!  We're kicking off another year of making a difference and saving lives.  We hope you're excited about the upcoming year - we sure are!  There's a massive amount of information in this newsletter, so it's a little long.  We hope you read through it - we think it's worth it!

Our goal is to ensure that every SADD chapter has the latest news, so we're counting on you to help spread the word about The SADDvocate.  Please encourage all of your SADD chapter members to sign up on sadd.org, or send a list (spreadsheets preferred, with columns for first name, last name, and email address) to Chris Egan, SADD's Director of Field Services, at cegan@sadd.org. 

Sometimes school computer filters prevent students and advisors from seeing The SADDvocate properly, in full color with graphics.  You can view every issue in our online archive.  This issue will be posted to the archive later today.

A good source of regular SADD news is our Facebook page.  Please "like" our page today, and encourage your friends to do so as well!  Links to all our social networking pages are on the bar at left.

Greetings from the still-somewhat-sunny state of North Dakota!

My name is Carrie Louise Sandstrom, and I'm honored to serve as your 2012-2013 SADD National Student of the Year.  Born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota, I'm currently a freshman at the University of North Dakota, majoring in communications and international studies.

It's September, which means sales on school supplies (my favorite kind of sale), the leaves slowly but surely beginning to change, and the rejuvenation of SADD chapters who are rallying their membership.  With all that going on, it's hard to see fall as anything other than a time of opportunity and possibility.

The possibility for greatness is before each and every one of you as an individual student and as a SADD member.  Just as SADD's history is filled with progress and change, you have the chance to carve out your own legacy this school year.  This is your time to address issues that are important to you, to take advantage of the resources designed by SADD National for you, and to be everything that you can be.

Take some time to make the most of this new school year.  Use your chapter to reach out to your classmates.  Reach out to others in SADD Nation as well, through Facebook, Twitter, and sadd.org.  And of course, keep reading The SADDvocate for rad new information each month!

So buy some spankin' new pens, crunch in some freshly fallen leaves, and get ready for a great year with SADD Nation!

As we start up after our summer break, we've got tons of resources and opportunities for you.  Read on!

Our friends at AT&T have been working hard to address the issue of texting while driving with teens.  Wednesday, September 19 has been designated as No Text on Board Pledge Day.  SADD chapters are encouraged to hold an event to collect pledges and educate classmates about this danger on the 19th.  You can pledge online at itcanwait.org, or download a pledge sheet you can print and other resources in the It Can Wait toolkit.  You might also consider showing the compelling 10-minute The Last Text documentary in class or in an assembly for students - make sure to use the viewing toolkit provided by National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), a coalition of youth safety organizations including SADD.  You can find additional resources for schools by clicking here. 

Monday, September 24 is Family Day, sponsored by the Columbia University Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).  Families are encouraged to make a special effort to eat dinner together on this day, because compelling research shows that if families regularly eat dinner together, the children are much less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or use drugs.  Some restaurants offer specials for those families that prefer to have a special night out together, and your chapter can partner with restaurants in your area to offer discounts or conduct fundraising campaigns for your chapter on the 24th.  For more information, visit casafamilyday.org.

CASA also recently released their annual study of teen substance abuse, and there were some shocking statistics.  86% of high school students surveyed said they knew of classmates who used alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs during the school day, more than half reported there was a known location on campus where students got high during the school day, and nearly half knew a student who sold illegal drugs at school.  You can learn more and read the report by clicking here.

The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has a focus on underage drinking through their Underage Drinking Enforcement and Training Center (UDETC).  They've just released a new booklet examining the Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking that serves as a useful summary of current research on the topic.  It's worth checking out - click here to do so.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released a new toolkit called Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools.  This massive 230-page resource includes valuable research, tips for school staff, risk assessment tools, and more.  The toolkit can be downloaded for free or you can have it shipped to you at a nominal cost.  To order or download the toolkit, click here.

October can be one of the busiest months for SADD chapters, with lots of different events happening that your chapter might want to start planning for now.  The biggest, of course, is Red Ribbon Week, which will take place October 23-31.  You can learn more at the National Family Partnership's redribbon.org site.  You can also use SADD's Think About It ... Homecoming and Red Ribbon Season campaign and purchase SADD's Red Ribbon Supply Kit (see the SADD Store article below for more information).

October is National Substance Abuse Prevention Month.  Our friends at the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) have a popular teen program called Above the Influence (ATI), which has more than 1.7 million fans on Facebook!  As part of Substance Abuse Prevention Month, ONDCP is holding the first annual Above the Influence Day on Thursday, October 18.

Here's how to participate in ATI Day: first, run one of the ATI activities during the 10 days leading up to the event (October 8-17).  You can download the ATI Toolkit with all these great, easy-to-implement activities here. Then, on ATI Day itself, implement the "Influence Discussion" activity in the toolkit using ATI videos, and also encourage students to draw the ATI arrow logo on their hands, take pictures, and post them on the ATI Facebook page.  We hope your SADD chapter participates!

October is also National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month.  You can find resources at the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) PreventRxAbuse.org site.  Also, check out our partners at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), who offer PEERx, a site for teens about prescription drug abuse which SADD students helped develop.

October 14-20 is National Teen Driver Safety Week (NTDSW).  This week, created by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Center for Injury Research and Prevention, places a lot of focus on teen peer-to-peer messaging.  Learn more about NTDSW here, and your chapter can implement CHOP's Ride Like a Friend peer-to-peer program as part of your celebration.

Tuesday, October 30 is National Mix It Up at Lunch Day.  Sponsored by Teaching Tolerance, this day tried to break down stereotypes and reduce cliques by encouraging students to sit with a different group of people at lunch.  By talking and getting to know one another, this should improve your school climate.  We encourage your chapter to get involved!  Learn more by clicking here.
 
That's a lot of upcoming October events!  We have a few other items we wanted to share as well.  First, for SADD Advisors: our friends at NIDA are creating a new "Advisors Group" - teachers and educators involved in drug prevention work that will provide input and feedback on NIDA programs.  If you're chosen, you'll meet four times over the course of the year for one hour in an online setting, and you'll receive a $25 stipend for each virtual meeting you attend.  If you're interested in applying, fill out this form.  Questions?  Email Arlene Remick at aremick@iqsolutions.com. 

You may be familiar with Natural High.  This organization creates compelling videos with celebrity artists, athletes, actors, and musicians who share their "natural high" to encourage students to remain substance-free.  SADD Advisors: if you're a school staff member, you can join the Educators Network to receive free DVDs of their videos.  To join the network, fill out this form.

Finally, you may have heard of Stop Bullying Now!  This program, created by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is designed for students ages 9-13.  Some high school SADD chapters have taken the materials and implemented them with middle school students.  There are a number of free materials still available - DVD toolkits, activity guides, comic books, resource kits, and flash drives with the campaign materials on them.  Interested?  Send your shipping address and a list of the materials and quantities you want to Stephanie Waties at stephanie.waties@widmeyer.com, or call her with questions at 202-518-6488.

The 2012 SADD National Conference, The Prevention League: Discover Your Power was a major success!  Students and advisors from across the country joined in sunny Southern California for a fantastic, life-changing experience - with great speakers, workshops, fun activities, and a trip to Disneyland.  Special thanks to our terrific sponsors that made it happen: the California Office of Traffic Safety, TOYOTA, Cars.com, DCH Auto Group, The National Road Safety Foundation, and the FDA/Center for Tobacco Products.

The SADD National Student Leadership Council is already busy planning next year's conference.  While registration isn't yet open, we can share some important details with you.  The 2013 SADD National Conference, Decades of Change, will take place Saturday, June 22 - Tuesday, June 25, 2013 in Orlando, Florida (note the change in days - conference begins on Saturday instead of Sunday as in the past).  The conference will be held at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, which is located next to Downtown Disney and right outside Disney World!

We can also announce pricing at this time, so you can begin planning your fundraising.  You asked, and we listened, so we've dropped the conference price $100 from last year!  Many of you suggested we make our offsite trip (to Universal Studios in Orlando next year) an optional additional expense, so that's what we've done.  Our goal is to make the conference accessible for more students, so we hope you'll sign up and bring your friends!  Our inclusive conference price, which includes the conference programs, hotel, and most meals, will be just $699 for students (quad occupancy) and $799 for adults (double occupancy).

We hope you'll join us in Orlando for an amazing time!  Registration materials and more details will be posted on sadd.org in the weeks ahead.

It's back!  The Act Out Loud contest is returning for 2013 - and there are some big changes!

This year, the first 350 teams to sign up can earn $1,000 and a toolkit packed with giveaways - just for participating in the first five stages of the contest!  The central concept behind the contest this year is holding a rally for safe driving next May as part of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month (GYTSM).

The steps involved include: planning the date and location of your rally; coming up with an idea for a promotional item for the toolkit; creating a poster for the toolkit; designing a t-shirt to be used during GYTSM; and finalizing the plans for your rally.  Completing those steps earns you a total of $1,000 and the toolkit!  Then create a video or slideshow of your rally and submit it for a chance at the grand prize of $10,000!

SADD chapters won Act Out Loud two of the last four years, and we're hoping to build on our dynasty and bring it home again this year to make SADD Nation proud!  So we hope you'll register your chapter soon - remember, only the first 350 teams are eligible to earn $1,000, and the deadline to register is November 1!  Make sure you put "SADD" in the "National Organization Your Team Represents" field on the application.  Ready to learn more and register your chapter?  Visit actoutloud.org.

The Federal Partners for Bullying Prevention are a group of federal agencies working on the issue.  They're holding a Stop Bullying Video Challenge for teens.  Create a 30-60 second video about bullying, and you have a chance at the grand prize of $2,000!  Your video should encourage students to actively intervene if they see bullying and not be a bystander, rather than a general anti-bullying message.  Hurry - the deadline to enter is October 14!  For more information, click here.

The National Family Partnership is the official sponsor of Red Ribbon Week.  Each year, they hold a Red Ribbon Photo Contest.  Here's how it works this year - work with your family to decorate your home's door, windows, fence, mailbox, etc. with this year's Red Ribbon theme "The Best Me is Drug Free."  Then take a picture and submit it on the redribbon.org website by November 2.  Ask your family, friends, and classmates to vote for your picture online between November 2-16, and you could be one of 10 winners of an iPad, plus $1,000 for your school!  To learn more, click here.

As the school year kicks off, many SADD chapters ask us for fundraising ideas.  Besides contests, there are grants your chapter can apply for to conduct certain projects.  Our friends at YSA give away $1 million each year to groups like SADD chapters who take on service projects.  Visit ysa.org/grants to learn more.  Make sure to put "SADD" in the "Partner Code" section of the application so that you get a priority review!

The SADD Store is ready to deliver everything you need for the year ahead - from giveaway items to your custom SADD chapter t-shirts - at great prices and with great service!  Buying from the SADD Store is an easy way to give back, as 15% of your purchase - at no cost to you - goes to SADD National to develop more programs and resources for you.  If it's been a few years since you ordered, take another look - we have a new team in place that's winning rave reviews for their quality of products and customer service!

For great SADD-branded Red Ribbon materials, the SADD Store is the place to go.  You can buy supplies piecemeal - ribbon, banners, table tents, pencils, and more - or just order the full Red Ribbon kit.  And don't forget to download SADD's free Think About It ... Homecoming and Red Ribbon Season campaign kit full of activity ideas, planning guides, press release templates, and more.

To order, visit saddstore.org, call 1-888-608-6988, or email sadd@apisource.com.  Make sure you "like" the SADD Store Facebook page for the latest specials and discounts!

Stephen Wallace, SADD's former Chairman, speaks at schools, colleges, organizations, and community events across the country.  His dynamic, empowering, and positive presentations regarding youth development and decision-making address multiple audiences, including students, parents, faculty, health care providers (who can earn CME credits), law enforcement officials, and camp professionals.  An effective and interactive speaker, he covers a wide range of topics, including underage drinking, other drug use, bullying, violence, suicide, teen driving, family relationships, and sexuality/sexual behavior.

The reaction to these presentations have been remarkable.  Teens say Stephen helps them become more open and honest about the pressures they face, while adults become better parents and mentors.

Stephen offers a presentation right for any audience:

• Family Focus is for parents and teens together
• School Speaker is for middle or high school students
• Beat Bullying is for middle school students
• Parent Power is for parents
• Teens Today is for school administrators, faculty, and staff (for CME credits)   

To learn more or book one or more of the SADD Speaker Series presentations at your school, call 1-877-SADD-INC (723-3462), ext. 222, email ncheschi@sadd.org, or visit saddspeaker.org.

Remember that the SADD National Field Services department is here to provide help and support to chapters, especially those in states without state coordinators.  Just call 1-877-SADD-INC, ext. 223 or email fieldservices@sadd.org for help!

Thanks for reading this issue of The SADDvocate, and thanks for all the work you do in your SADD chapters!