Miss Apple Blossom Festival 2010

Platform Statement:

Name: Shannon Beam
Title: Miss Apple Blossom Festival

Underage Drinking Prevention: A Collective Responsibility

Each year in the United States, approximately 5.000 children under the age of 21 are killed. Their murderer is not a man, however – it’s alcohol. Alcohol kills more young people than all illegal drugs combined and contributes to the rate of children who are injured or killed in motor vehicle crashes, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, assaults, unintentional injuries, homicides, and suicides. Because the young mind and body is undergoing constant development, it is highly susceptible to damage from a substance such as alcohol. Any contact with alcohol during this time will interrupt key processes of development in the brain, cause liver damage, and upset the proper growth and development of organs, muscles, and bones. Yet, modern society views underage drinking not as a threat but instead as a right of passage.

Over the past three years, I have traveled as much as 800 miles a month in order to spread the message that alcohol is not just dangerous when you drive, but that it is a debilitating drug which can cause much pain and suffering in other ways as well. I have joined organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Drawing the Line, and Virginia College Parents, Inc., speaking to hundreds of students and parents. I have seen firsthand the devastation that underage drinking causes, as one of my friends was raped and another was killed in a car accident only one week after his high school graduation. I firmly believe that through the work that I have done, the attention it has received, and the national ties that I have formed, I will bring even more awareness to this issue as Miss Apple Blossom Festival 2010.

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