The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority (NRHA) recently threw a day-long party for the grade 10 students at Snow Lake's J.H. Kerr School. However, it wasn't remotely close to the parties these young people might have experienced in the past. PARTY is the acronym used for Prevent Alcohol and Risk Trauma in Youth, a program being delivered by Catherine Hynes, a Community Development Worker with the NRHA. In concert with local EMS workers, RCMP, firefighters, school and Health Center staff, Hynes helped put the students through an in-your-face portrayal of the possible results of risky behaviour. The students' day began with an EMS presentation of actual crash scenes in Manitoba. With the devastating reality fresh in their minds, students left the school and attended an area behind the community's recreation facilities, where a mock accident played out. The accident involved two teenage girls who had been drinking. Their vehicle was involved in a head-on collision. The passenger, who was conscious at the scene, was thrown from the car, hit her head on a rock and broke her arm. The driver, who had internal injuries and required CPR, was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Health Center. See 'It' P.# Con't from P.# The grade 11 student who played the passenger shed tears of emotion during the mock-up. "After going through that, I don't ever want to get into a car with a drunk driver, or see any of my friends do it," stated the teen following the staged accident, her voice still raw with emotion. "It was just so powerful." The grade 10 students who observed the staged accident were then bussed down to the Health Center to watch the aftermath play out in the waiting room, the emergency room and ultimately, the morgue. Upon their return to the school and without allowing students time to catch their breath, the RCMP gave them a presentation on risky behaviours and following this, they were addressed by an Injury Survivor Panel. The panel held special significance, as it involved presentations from three well-known Snow Lakers. Mildred Morrison spoke of an accident she was involved in that took the life of her mother. Cheryl Turnbull discussed a severe snowmobile accident that her son survived, and Ernie Ramstead spoke about the 1965 car accident that left him a paraplegic and destroyed his dream of playing in the NHL. Before breaking for lunch, students were asked to don splints and other special devices in order to simulate the experience of living with a brain or spinal cord injury. Over the day, the students were provided with positive alternatives and choices to risky behaviour. They were encouraged to examine attitudes and actions towards their approach to risk-taking, and were left with some powerful and uncompromising food for thought.
