By: Laura Lane
Committing to the club means pledging to stay away from drugs, performing community service and finding healthy alternatives to substance abuse. SADD is a lot of work, but Yousuf, 16, believes it's all worth it.
SADD has helped define Yousuf. "Being in SADD has helped me realize more of who I am," he said. "It's made me realize that one person can make a difference."
Yousuf, who hopes to become a cardiologist, said he feels some peer pressure while living the clean life, but he can resist it. "I have more willpower than the pressure, and what I try to do is make sure I'm not in a situation where I have to deal with it." His peers, he said, fully understand that he's against drugs, including alcohol.
Sixty to 70 students usually turn out for Mepham's SADD meetings. But it wasn't always that way. Barbara Gai, a health teacher who has served as SADD's adviser for five years, said, "The group has grown so much. Originally 10 kids used to come to a general meeting." She attributes the increase in membership to the quality work that the students have done.
Club members have collected toys for the American Cancer Society, held a walk-a-thon to benefit Long Island Cares, offered an affordable movie night at Mepham and reached out to older adults, holding a senior citizens' prom.
Gai said the students continually come up with new ideas. "SADD tries to get the kids involved in positive activities," she said. "Doing things outside the school, like serving senior citizens, for example, gives the kids positive attention. Kids need the positive reinforcement, and when they get it, they live up to people's expectations."
Robert Anastas, a high-school coach and health teacher, started SADD in 1981 in Massachusetts. He was inspired by the loss of two of his athletes in drunk-driving accidents one week apart. At the time, 9,000 young people were dying annually in drunk-driving accidents. Anastas discovered that the explanation was largely a communication problem. The students, it seemed, would rather die than call their parents to say they were partying and too drunk to drive.
Felicia Schneberg, a former Nassau County-New York state SADD coordinator and a former director of education for the county Department of Drug and Alcohol Addiction, met with Anastas in 1982. "Nassau County was one of the first counties to adopt this program," Schneberg said. "It has grown to include other behaviors, like suicide, drugs, driving at excessive speeds and casual sex."
At a recent Mepham SADD board meeting, 10 teenagers sat in a circle discussing several activities that the group could pursue. The idea of holding a family night for high school and middle school students to encourage family time together was agreed on. And developing a public-service announcement to be shown at local movie theaters appeared to be moving forward. Members plan to create a banner with the message "Not Everyone Drinks," and have a photo taken of students standing in front of the banner. They hope to show there are kids who don't drink and, in so doing, present a positive role model for other young people.
Elana Cucci, 16, has been in SADD since she was a freshman. She's a member of the Wellness Council of the Bellmores and Merricks, where she offers her opinions about how the anti-drug message should be taught in the elementary schools. She's also a varsity volleyball player who hopes to play in college, too. Cucci plans to be an environmental lawyer.
"Being in SADD has given me more motivation to be drug and alcohol free, to know there are others like me," she said. "Outside of school, I only hang out with people who don't do things I don't want to do."
Gai believes SADD members increase their self-esteem. "I have the kids focus on the positives in their life and remind them that they have a chance to be role models," she said. "They take this seriously, and they're hard workers. I'm very proud of them."
Nikki Teitler, 15, is active on the school newspaper and a member of the student government as well as the tennis and golf teams. She has been in a lot of clubs, but being a SADD member has given Teitler more than she expected. "I loved working on the senior-citizen prom, and even wrote an article about it for the school newspaper," she said. "I met this woman there who is 93 years old, and we write back and forth now. She thinks of me as a granddaughter."
Teitler described SADD as more than a club. She believes it's a second family. "Since we all feel the same way about things, we can rely on each other," she said. "The people I hang out with have the same values as me."
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