Kansas Family Partnership - Get Involved SADD

was originally founded as Students Against Driving Drunk, and is a school-based organization dedicated to addressing the issues of underage drinking, impaired driving, drug use, and other destructive decisions and killers of young people.

SADD's mission is to provide students with the best prevention and intervention tools possible to deal with the serious issues young adults are facing today. Empowerment is the foundation of SADD. The idea of empowerment is to build students' confidence and ability to create changes and manage behavior in a way that results in healthy choices.

SADD promotes a "no use" message of alcohol and other drugs and encourages students not to participate in activities with destructive consequences.

SADD offers life lessons that will lead young people well into the 21st century.

SADD was founded in 1981 as "Students Against Driving Drunk" by Robert Anastas and his Wayland High School students in Wayland, Massachusetts. Two Wayland High School hockey players were killed in separate crashes that July, which led Mr. Anastas to work together with his students to found the SADD organization. At that time, impaired driving was the number one killer of teens, accounting for over 6,000 teen deaths each year. In 1997, in response to requests from SADD students themselves, SADD expanded its mission and adopted a new name, "Students Against Destructive Decisions."

The core of SADD is still the SADD Contract for Life that was formulated by Mr. Anastas and his students. SADD is the only national student-based organization that highlights prevention of all destructive behaviors and attitudes that are harmful to young people, including underage drinking, substance abuse, impaired driving, violence, suicide, and other issues which affect teenagers' lives.

To form a SADD Chapter in your school or community, use these 10 easy steps get started:

1. REGISTER! It's easy to register a new SADD Chapter. Go to www.saddonline.com and fill out the online form. Then contact the Kansas SADD Director, Maria Torrez Anderson via e-mail or call her at 1-800-206-7231.

2. Put up posters, hand out flyers and make announcements at your school telling when and where a SADD meeting will be held.

4. Consider providing refreshments to encourage students to attend (snacks, pizza, soft drinks, etc.).

5. At the first meeting, be sure to discuss SADD’s “No Use Policy” and discuss how the Chapter can address the destructive decisions that face students today.

6. Decide how the Chapter should be run--either with elected officers or by a team without designated titles.

7. Nominate and elect your officers or team. These individuals should represent the SADD philosophy of a drug-free lifestyle.

8. Plan your first event or activity. You can start out with a “SADD Week,” and plan a different activity for each day of the week. You can close your week with an all-school assembly. This is a good way to let other students know there is a SADD Chapter in their school and it helps get the entire school involved.

9. After your first event, schedule monthly SADD activities. Log on to www.saddonline.com to view the SADD National Calendar to get ideas and learn about the different activities your chapter can do. You can also order a SADD Chapter Starter Kit from SADD Custom Products at 1-800-886-2972.

10. Download a SADD Membership Form by clicking here. Complete and mail the form to SADD National. Once they receive this form, they will process it and send out a SADD Certificate of Membership, along with a newsletter, SADD Custom Products catalog, and activities & fundraiser ideas.

Register with the national SADD organization to receive special campaigns, notices and offers! Only registered chapters will receive timely information on SADD National annual conference and the annual Kansas statewide leadership conference, fund raising promotions, chapter contests and brand-new campaign kits. All the more incentive to register! It takes just a minute to register and you can do it by going to www.saddonline.org. You are responsible for registering your chapter with SADD National every year! Please remember to re-register, so SADD National has current information about your chapter on file.

Save the date and start your fundraising now! We’ll be in our nation’s capitol for the 2009 SADD National Conference and want you to be there, too! Continue to check this web site for more details closer to the 2009 Conference. (*dates are tentative and subject to change...)

2009 SADD National Chapter Awards

At the 2009 SADD National Conference in Washington, D.C., SADD will recognize the stellar work of some of its most outstanding contributors, chosen from nominations made by SADD representatives across the country. SADD will present the following awards:

Nominations must be related to work supporting the SADD mission between April 1, 2008, and April 1, 2009. Completed nomination form(s) and supporting materials must be received at the SADD National office by Friday, April 17, 2009. First-place award winners in each category will receive a cash prize of $500. Second- and third-place winners in each category will receive $250 and $100 prizes, respectively.

The first Kansan to apply for and be chosen for the National Student Leadership Council for the 2006-2007 school year, Tawny Decker from Burlington High School represented the state! Way to go Tawny!

2007 - 2008 National Student Leadership Council Representative
Kansas is on a roll! Stephen Winkler, from Nemaha Valley High School was chosen to be a representative for the National Student Leadership Council and also serves on the newly formed Kansas Student Leadership Council. Thanks Stephen! See this link for more information on Stephen.

New! 2009 - Kansas SADD student accepted for national leadership
Dawn Deeds-Rookstool, a senior who attends Highland Park High School, was selected as one of 21 students from across the country, by SADD National, for the SADD SPEAKs (Students for Policy, Education, Advocacy, and Knowledge) 2009 Program. This program is part of the 2009 SADD National Conference to be held in July in Washington, D.C.
See this link for more information on Dawn.

The third ever Kansas student through Kansas Family Partnership to apply for and be chosen for the National Student Leadership Council, Marcus Kidd from Manhattan High School will represent Kansas nationally with the SADD Student Leadership Council. See this link for more information regarding Marcus' appointment to the Council.

Students Against Destructive Decisions Chooses Kansas

Teenager to Represent Organization Nationally

Stephen Winkler poses with Governor Kathleen Sebelius at a recent ceremony recognizing his being named as the 2008-09 SADD National Student of the Year.

SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), the national school-based peer-to-peer education and prevention organization, today announced that Stephen Winkler of Seneca, Kan., has been named 2008-2009 SADD National Student of the Year. Winkler will be the national student spokesperson for the organization, which has more than 10,000 chapters and hundreds of thousands of active participants in schools nationwide.

“I’m excited about the chance to make a difference and influence teens across the nation to make better life choices,” Winkler said. “I believe in SADD’s mission, and I hope to accomplish as much as possible within the next year.”

A senior at Nemaha Valley High School, Winkler has been a dedicated SADD student for the last four years and has been very involved with the organization at the local, state, and national levels. He currently serves as a member of the 2007-2008 SADD National Student Leadership Council.

“Stephen has been an exceptional spokesperson for SADD, working tirelessly to ensure that teens are fully aware of the perils of underage drinking and other drug use,” said Penny Wells, president and executive director of SADD. “Being chosen SADD National Student of the Year is a great honor and a natural progression for him. We are sure he will thrive as a leader, an educator, and an important voice and advocate for teens nationwide.”

Student of the Year responsibilities include publicly addressing issues affecting teens, serving a one-year term on the SADD National Board of Directors, and leading 12 extraordinary youth leaders who comprise the SADD National Student Leadership Council (SLC). The SLC advises the SADD National Board of Directors on policies and programs, plans and implements the SADD annual national conference, and serves as a national and regional student representation network. Winkler will begin his term as the SADD National Student of the Year during SADD’s annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in June. An event will be held in Seneca this spring to introduce Winkler as the new SADD National Student of the Year. Details of the event will be announced at a later date.

Winkler is the vice president of his SADD chapter, an active member of the Kansas SADD Student Leadership Council. He has served on the Kansas Youth Leadership Summit Training and Kansas Red Ribbon Training. In 2007, Winkler received the esteemed Nemaha Valley High School Leadership Award for his involvement with SADD at the local, state and national levels. He also works on his school’s yearbook, is a member of the National Honor Society, on the Superior Honor Role, and is involved in forensics as a state competitor. Way to go, Stephen!

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The Conference will be held at the Kansas Army National Guard Training Center in Salina, KS. Registration fees are $50 per youth and or adult. Registration will begin on Wednesday, April 22nd at 4:30 p.m. The Conference will conclude on Thursday, April 23rd at 3 p.m.

For more information about registering, contact Maria Torrez Anderson at mtanderson@kansasfamily.com, or call her at (800) 206-7231. Registration forms can be accessed on the left side of this page under "SADD PDF Downloads."

Over 120 youth and adults who make up a portion of the SADD Chapters in Kansas attended last year's annual event. Bill Cordes, nationally known speaker, consultant, and author was the emcee and one the numerous presenters at the SADD conference. Both youth and adults were able to participate in various sessions dealing with the dangers of underage drinking and the laws in Kansas for teens concerning underage drinking, leadership and team building exercises, and the chapters developed an action plan to take back to their communities to help make their communities a safer place to live.

The 2009 winners were chosen for Kansas SADD Advisor of the Year, and Outstanding SADD Kansas Chapter. The winners were Kari Quiton, Manhattan High School, for Kansas SADD Advisor of the Year, and Norwich High School won Outstanding Kansas SADD Chapter. See the following links for photos:

The Annual State SADD conference is open to all high school students (freshmen through seniors), and to all youth groups whose focus is to stop underage drinking and the illegal use of drugs, as well as helping to keep Kansas youth healthy. Students need not be a member of SADD to attend.

For more information about next year's conference, call state coordinator, Maria Torrez Anderson at (800)-206-7231.

Check out the Kansas SADD tee shirts--only $10!

Kansas now has a tee shirt specifically designed for Kansas SADD. The shirts are 100% pure cotton and full cut with short sleeves; black in color with gold lettering on the front of the tee shirt.

**For each $100 or a fraction above the $700 amount, add $6.00 to the $31.75 shipping charge

Office Hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday – Thursday, and 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday