I believe that most students who participate in the PARTY program leave with the same morals and values they went in with. My experience was educational, and at times emotional, but none of my beliefs were changed (maybe because I went in being strongly against drinking and driving), and my behaviours and choices would’ve been the same regardless of my experience with the program. I don’t think this is a fault of the program itself, more a reality of the closed-mindedness of teenagers. Showing them the potential consequences of risky behaviour is the main takeaway from this program, but I think that the emphasis should shift more to focus on strategies to avoid the behaviours. It may be ethically questionable to some to “condone” teen drinking, but I think there could be great benefit in addressing it as a reality. One of the things that stuck with me from the program was a mother who had lost a teen to an alcohol related accident and she said that no matter what, your parents would rather get the call from you to come pick you up in the middle of the night than the call saying you’d been involved in an accident

                                                                                                                                                                         -Brianna Hanley

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I believe that the party program is a fantastic approach to educating students on the potential consequences of risk-related behaviors. I remember the experience of taking part in the program with great clarity, it incorporates a mixture of fun and serious events to give students a better understanding of how drugs and alcohol can impact the brain by playing handball with drunk googles, or giving students various supplies to act as disabilities, and listening to presentations from doctors, RCMP, and people who have suffered injuries themselves from risky behaviours.

 One aspect of the program that heavily impacted me was listening to the story of a girl who got in a vehicle whose driver was under the influence. The girl was pretty and she looked normal, the only part that was slightly deformed was her nose which she was waiting to have her final surgery on, however, during the presentation

-she showed us a picture of herself before the accident and it did not resemble the girl who was standing in front of me at all. I could not believe how different she looked. She may not have been driving or caused the accident, but she was under the influence herself which impaired her judgment, leaving her with a deformed face and a decision that could never be taken back.

                                                                                                                                                                        -Amy Crossan

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Going into the PARTY program in high school, you expect to see things that will impact you. For myself, the thing that stood out to me the most was how drastically someone’s life can change in a matter of seconds. That there is risk when you drive every day, but when you get into a car with a drunk driver you are significantly increasing your risk of getting into an accident. I think about this every time we go out for drinks and make sure that someone is safe to drive.​

                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                                        -Morgan Endacott

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I believe that the P.A.R.T.Y. program is a great program that informs students about the negative consequences that will arise from making poor decisions. For me, this program taught me skills, techniques, and educated me on how to make proper decisions regarding the situation. Also, I enjoyed listening to the guest speakers; they revealed stories that they have experienced previously. The stories were negative, traumatic, and families usually lost a family member. Listening to these stories influenced and enlightened me and at the moment I knew that I was never going to make my family grieve over an incident that could have been preventable. The P.A.R.T.Y. program is an excellent program that truly educates students the importance of making informed, conscious, and appropriate decisions. 

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                                                                                                                                                                     -Robyn Bickford

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