SADD All-members meeting Thursday April 9‏

Hey SADD members,

There will be a meeting for all members on Thursday, April 9th at 2:15 PM. We usually meet in Mr. Weiderman's room (214) but we will checking to make sure that is a possibility (it usually is). Tim will make an announcement as usual this week announcing the location.

Thanks,

Gabby :)

The 84 Campaign and the Prom Skits!‏

Hi Everyone,

Some things from the last 2 weeks, starting with the 84 Campaign! THANK YOU for all the help and support from you all (getting signatures, completing missions, getting the word out) , the campaign was a big success!! We have about 130 signatures that I am still cutting out individually and pasting on posterboard. This will be on/near our bulletin board near A stairwell on the 1st floor. Already we have a list of reasons NOT to use tobacco there, so check it out! Great news about competing for completing the most missions... Gardner placed in the top ten for the state of MA! The proof is here at the 84 website: http://www.the84.org/iconnect2win . So great job! Thanks again for helping out. :)

For those of you who helped with our Safety at Prom Skits, fantastic job! As you may have heard from Sam, people really liked them and appreciated our efforts to help keep kids safe on Prom Night. Thanks for being there, and excellent acting! So there will be a community meeting for this sometime this month, according to our Community Coordinator Josh Tackett, and Mrs. Mcryllis is still organizing meetings for parents and students in May. We can perform them at these meetings as well. If you did not make it to the first one, see me if you are interested in a small part (for example, holding a sign or something) for the others. More details to come when I hear back from them.

I had read Sam's idea for a PSA, etc. recently about an issue SADD should cover; depression. SADD is known for its no-use policy for drugs and alcohol, but any destructive decision is "fair game" for us, such as depression and suicide, eating disorders, not using seatbelts, and even health-related issues like getting enough sleep. So I think that is a great idea. Maybe if we wanted to do a Public Service Announcement or other informational project, we could work on it for the end of the year. Anyone who wants can be involved. So we will start thinking about something like that; it's a good idea to expand our reach of topics.

That's about it for now. Thanks again for all the help with the 84 Campaign and the Safety at Prom Skits! I agree with Sam and believe we can accomplish so much as a group, look where we are already. So thanks again! I'll see you all in school.

- Gabby :)

Hey SADD!‏

Hey everyone,
So the prom skits for the junior prom meeting went really well. Great job to all those who participated in them. We should still be doing them for the senior prom meeting. If anything changes we'll let you know immediately.

As you know, the SADD chapter at Gardner is primarily focused on underage drinking and smoking. Now, while these topics are extremely important and vital to helping our community, I believe that as a group we can focus on more. We could continue to focus on the other two topics, while working on new ones. A major topic that I have in mind is suicide prevention. Suicide affects more people than we realize. It is an important issue in today's world and I believe we should try to help. Any opinions on what you think about suicide prevention and if we should focus on it are greatly welcomed.

Some of you may know that a few months ago, Tim, Gabby, Josh and I shot a PSA with the help of Mike Perron. For those of you who don't know what a PSA is, it's a Public Service Announcement. A PSA is meant raise awareness about a specific issue and to educate the viewers on the specific subject. The PSA that we shot was about underaged drinking and driving and the consquences. A fellow officer and I were discussing shooting another PSA possibly about suicide prevention. Any feedback on this idea would be great.

SADD has grown tremendously for us this year. The effect of everyone joining and participating in activites has been tremendous. Just to think, we've just started and we've already done so much. It may not seem like much now, but in the long run, it's amazing. I just wanted to throw that in there. This group is amazing and I can't wait to see what else we all accomplish together.

Thanks,
Sam

Gardner SADD

Hello all!

Thanks to Josh Caron for creating our very own email account, for GHS SADD! From now on, any and all officers if needed can contact you all. All SADD business can be taken care of here. Please send us a brief reply telling us this worked for you. Thanks.

What a great Tuesday and Wednesday we had! Thank you all so much for bringing so much enthusiasm to the 84 Campaign. Everyone thought it was a great idea, and we got so much positive feedback. So many missions got accomplished as well! I have already posted the 84 reasons not to smoke from GHS students on our SADD bulletin board near the library and A stairwell, and I'm working on getting together all the signatures (there are a ton of them!) on one big poster board to display near our board. By the way, has anyone noticed the board? We finally got that up and running after we found out we did have permission. It will take a while to decorate with everything we've cut out but already there are things SADD related to look at. Any suggestions to what else you think should go on the board, just drop us a line.

Finally, prom skits... finally it is all worked out. Mr. Knapp, the junior class advisor made the decision yesterday to have a meeting for the junior prom-goers on Wednesday, April 1st at 6:30 pm. We are asking members to arrive no later than 6 in the lobby to go over last minute skit details. This meeting should not be too long, Mr. Knapp said; probably from 30 min. to 45 min. First he will talk to the parents and students himself, then he said he will hand the meeting over to us. The officers and I will introduce our wonderful group and then we'll get started. Please don't forget the rehearsal/meeting schedule* for next week; it is as follows:


Monday, March 30th in Room 214 - Prom Skit 2 will finish up with Tim from 2:15 to whenever he says. Plan to finish around 3:15 if necessary.
Tuesday, March 31th in Room 214 - All Prom Skits will be run through STARTING at 2:15 for a dry runthrough, individual fixings, and then 2 or 3 complete run throughs. Will go to about 3:15, but be prepared to stay a little longer if necessary cleaning up details. Officers, we need to go over what we are going to say to introduce SADD, etc. so be prepared for that as well.
Wednesday, April 1st at 6:30 pm, but arriving no later than 6. - The Junior Prom Students/Parents meeting


*If any scripts are distributed, they will be distributed that Monday or Tuesday. If anyone can not make it to a Skit Rehearsal for whatever reason, please let your Director know ASAP. If anyone can not make it to the Junior Prom Parents and Students meeting, please let us know ASAP!! We will need to plan around you not being there.*

As for other prom skit performances, our Community Coordinator Josh Tackett is scheduling a parent's meeting in April. Any questions, feel free to email him at JTackett@luk.org . Our last skit performance will be at the Senior Prom meeting on May 21st. More details about the time, etc. to come, but you should look ahead to make sure you don't have any previous engagements.



That's all I've got for now. Thanks again for all your hard work in the 84 Campaign! I will see you all in school tomorrow!


- Gabby :)

UPDATE

Ok, this hasn't been updated in quite a while. But, I'm going to make sure that this stays updated. Currently, only Me, Sam and Gabby have access to this account, but I am going to make it available to other officers, so expect to see us all posting on here. After this, I am going to post e-mails that Gabby has sent out. They will be posted on here, as well as you receiving it as an e-mail. I will be posting events and other things too. So, stay updated in multiple ways! There are currently 5 ways to check on SADD information:

• Blogger
• E-mails
• Facebook
• Word of Mouth
• Meetings

So, if there is anyting else, please contact me through this email: GardnerSADD@gmail.com

Thanks,
Josh

This Week

Hello,

Any SADD member who needs papers signed by Josh Tackett (e.g. for National Honor Society) or is interested in the Friday March 27 Compliance Check should come by the main office right after school on Wednesday, March 25. He will be happy to answer any questions about any activities as well. Because there is already a ton going on this week, there will not be an announcement for this. So if you need to see him, don't forget! :)


Next topic: Prom Skits. We're almost done! We determined the schedule for those. NEXT (sorry) Monday the 30th, after school, Tim's Prom Skit #2 will be finishing up their act. As for a full rehearsal for everyone in skits, Tuesday the 31st we will run all skits starting with #1. We are planning to go to 3 15 but will take a few extra minutes if needed. As for my #3 skit, I will have the script to you by then (more like guidlines) so that the first couples times you can refresh your memories and take them home for yourselves. This might be a good idea for the other directors as well; maybe distribute guidlines for your members of your skits. These will most likely be in Mr. Weiderman's room (214) again, I'll let you know if he tells me otherwise. Katie volunteered to make signs for different 'scenes' as well. As for performing these goes: Our junior class advisor has not been in school for a while, and so we don't know if/when there will be a junior prom meeting. If there is one, it would most likely be Thursday or Friday during school, or Thursday evening. In the case it is in school, Mr. Farrell will request permission for you to miss some of your class. We're sorry for the delayed information; our advisor has not even responded to emails. We will be performing our skits for the community in April, Josh Tackett still is working with plans for that one; he should be getting back to me this week. I'll let you know ASAP. And we are planning to jump in on the Senior prom meeting granting everything goes as planned. That will be May 21st, probably after school in the evening. Then again it may be in school. We need responses from advisors, as you can see. Thank you to all helping in this, your efforts and cooperation have been tremendous! What a great team. Onto the next activity... our smoke-free campaign.


As for the 84 Campaign this week... those planning to man the tables for each lunch can come down at the regular time, just remember to get to the table right away. There you will find the list of missions; for now concentrate mainly on getting the signatures and there will be a box we made today that has 84s all over it, and in that box tell people to drop reasons to be tobacco-free! About the pledges: Today I gave some of you papers that say "Sign the 84 Smoke Free Pledge: I agree to be smoke free!". Get as many signatures as possible from your friends, your classmates, and your teachers; and when you go to man the tables at lunch you will find about 3 or so more. Keep one at the table, and with the other two you can go around after and ask some of your friends at tables who haven't signed yet or have forgotten. Also, there will be the folders and informational pamphlets at the table that kids can look at if they want. Or you can just rattle off some lesser-known facts about the dangers of tobacco if you'd like. :) So at the end, I know Sam has third lunch. She or anyone else doing 3rd knows to put the table back in the room. In addition, if they don't let you keep the box back there, Sam, you can give it to me (and any additional materials) during band; I have no problem stashing it in my locker/asking for more reasons. Tshirts, for a reminder... tomorrow (Tuesday) is White underneath and Wednesday is Black underneath your 84 Ambassador shirts. Jena, I have a small 84 tshirt for you, and Josh or Sam may have another for members without one; we discussed that today during advisement. If someone still does not have one from last time, maybe you could pin something that says 84 to a shirt, so people know you are involved. Feel free to wear an 84 pin from last time/share with someone without one! Oh yes and one last thing. Have fun with this! We love being tobacco-free! :)


Once again thank you so much for your participation and enthusiasm. See you tomorrow with the list of missions!

- Gabby :)

The 84

Hey SADD kids! Ready for some more 84 stuff?

Once again SADD will be doing the 84 Campaign in school (84% of Massachusetts teens choose not to use tobacco). We received a box of materials this week to use throughout the campaign. Details in brief: It's a 2-day statewide competition; Tuesday the 24th through Wednesday the 25th. Our challenge is to complete missions found online at the 84 website the morning of the 24th. We are thinking of getting 84 signatures pledging to not use tobacco, and getting people to give us 84 reasons to join the 84 and be tobacco-free. We have until 11:59 on Wed. March 25th to upload proof (scanned documents, photos) of the completed missions. I'll take pictures/scan signatures as 'proof'. We need to get the word out on Monday. Tim has been asked to create a fun-sounding announcement (e.g; SADD is looking for 84 reasons to be tobacco free! AND/OR Pledge to be tobacco-free today and tomorrow at all lunches!) and we have informational folders we received in the mail. There is a $250 dollar prize for the school that completes the most missions, but we are mainly concentrating on doing what we know would work. If there are more ideas online that we find Tuesday morning that we can do then we will try our best. Other than that we won't worry about it too much. The point is to get the word out and have fun getting kids to follow the example of the 84. During a short meeting during advisement on Monday you all can sign up to man the tables, at all lunches Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thanks for your help in this. I am expecting this to be a successful campaign. Let's have fun with it! :)


- Gabby :)

SADD

Hi everyone!


Thank you to Sam for setting up the contact list so we can communicate with all of you successfully. I have a feeling this will really help with getting announcements out on time, etc.


I have a quick announcement that I want to mention before I forget to. Would anyone be willing to participate in a Compliance Check with Josh Tackett and the police on Friday, April 27th in the afternoon? Some kids have already started doing Compliance Checks and have gotten praise for what a helpful thing they are doing for the community. If you are interested, please see me in school or email me back at this address ASAP. If you are interested in helping out but are not sure what to expect, you can talk to Mariah, Kelsey, or Rachel what Compliance Checks are really like and they can answer questions better than I can (I've never been on one). So please talk to me ASAP because we need kids to go out on Friday the 27th.


This is the first email I have sent to all recorded members, and definitely not the last. The officers and I will be keeping you all updated about upcoming events.


Thank you for your help, and I'll see you all in school!


- Gabby

Here's some contact info.

Home: 978-630-3569
Email: suechalmers@live.com
AIM: PenguinGBlue
Homeroom/Advisement room: 228 (Mr. Knapp) (in case you want to stop by to ask a question or something)