We Remember, Inc.

U.S. Speaker of the House is supporting a call for a Congressional Hearing by Alcohol Free Kids. Please read the following news story for details.

Crusade receives national attention

A Hernando County man whose daughters were killed by a drunken driver lobbies members of Congress on underage drinking.
By GRAHAM BRINK

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 25, 1999

As Vernon Waldron waited to speak in a briefing room at the Capitol in Washington, the memories that had kept him going during his crusade against alcohol abuse flooded his mind.

His 10-year-old daughter lying in his arms as she took her last breath -- a victim of a drunken driver. His older daughter mangled and dead at the scene. His wife, Christine, back at home in Hernando County with permanent head injuries sustained in the crash.

Tears came to his eyes as he made his part of the presentation. He began to break down. For a time he could not continue. Other members of the Clearwater Beach-based Campaign for Alcohol Free Kids momentarily took over. Waldron, however, rallied and carried on.
He had come to tell his story.

By the end of the day, enough of the politicos had listened to Waldron and his colleagues to make what once was a distant dream into a possibility: congressional hearings on underage drinking.

"I'm exhausted. Worn out. The emotions ... wow," Waldron said minutes after the Thursday hearing.
Waldron, 39, founded We Remember Inc. two years ago, after the crash that killed his daughters, to help victims of drunken driving. His involvement with We Remember landed him a job as national victim assistance coordinator for the Campaign for Alcohol Free Kids.

It's also how he met the group's co-founder and chief executive officer, Sandy Golden, a former television reporter and executive director of MADD. For the past 20 years Golden has fought drunken driving and now wants to take on underage d

Alcohol Free Kids wants to use the congressional hearings to showcase the problem by bringing in experts from across the nation and by having people such as Waldron tell their stories about.
how alcohol affected their lives. The issue transcends any one-government agency, said Golden, who would like to see a joint hearing that includes officials from transportation, health, education and other departments.

"To get what we want, we have to get the politicians' attention one by one," Golden said. "We have to meet with the people who make those decisions."

And last week they met with many of them, including Rep. Michael Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor; Rep. Karen L. Thurman, D-Dunnellon; Rep. Robert Ehrlich, R-Md.; and Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C., an assistant whip who promised the support of more than 40 freshman House members, Waldron said.

The highlight was making the one-hour presentation to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's aides and then meeting with Hastert later in the day. Waldron said the aides were "blown away" by the presentation and that Hastert told them he would support their efforts to get congressional hearings. A date has not been set.
While the congressional hearings were Alcohol Free Kids' immediate goal, the group wants to use the hearings as a springboard to implement its national plan. The 80-plus page plan, which Golden kept mostly under wraps until after the meeting with Hastert, outlines dozens of ways Alcohol Free Kids wants to control underage drinking, including:

Creating a national system of uniform laws on drunken driving. For instance, in Florida it is not illegal to serve a visibly drunk person, as it is in other states, he said.

Strengthening and increasing the enforcement of laws dealing with teenage drinking. Alcohol Free Kids would like lawmakers to make it a felony to sell alcohol to a minor.

Setting up plans to cater to each community's problems. The communities would be required to evaluate police training, judicial decisions and alcohol education in the schools, among other things.

In the past month, Golden traveled throughout the Midwest, meeting with politicians, community and religious leaders and American Indian tribes to raise support for the plan. The majority leaders in the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives wrote letters to their federal counterparts in support of the Campaign for Alcohol Free Kids. Golden's trip also caught the media's eye, with stories appearing in local newspapers almost everywhere he went.

The next steps include setting up a meeting with first lady Hillary Clinton and gaining the support of all 50 governors, Waldron said. They met with Gov. Jeb Bush this month. The 20-minute meeting ended with a promise from Bush that he would encourage his brother, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, to meet with the group, Waldron said.

The group also urged Bush to hold a news conference during high school graduation season to highlight the perils of underage drinking and to increase enforcement of laws banning alcohol sales to people younger than 21. Bush was noncommittal but agreed to consider the ideas, Waldron said.

"This is an issue that needs to be addressed quickly and efficiently," Waldron said. "It's too important to stop now."

Note: We need help lobbying congress. Let us know if you will write your congressman. We will give you full details.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Vernon E. Waldron
President and Co Founder
We Remember, Inc.

For more information:
We Remember, Inc.
P.O. Box 10126
Brooksville, FL 34603-0126 US
1-888-588-4525

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