Please, please read this.
How many of you have ever gotten so drunk, that you wake up the next morning and realize that you did something stupid?
How many of you have been in the passenger seat of a car when the person who was driving was drunk?
How many of you have driven a car drunk?
How many of you have gone away on spring break before?
How many of you are going away on spring break this year?
How many of you have killed three of your best friends, while driving drunk?
Two nights ago, a speaker came to Stetson to talk to us about the dangers of alcohol. Everyone assumed from the beginning that this was going to be another speech that no one wanted to listen to. Being lectured on the statistics of the U.S. in relation to alcohol is overdone, and completely ineffective.
But when I saw the projector on stage being set up, and a few short seconds of a film clip with several guys laughing and having a good time, I instantly remembered who this speaker was. His name is Mark Sterner. He spoke at my highschool about four or five years ago. In 1994, him and four of his best friends from college vacationed down to Sanibel Island, and Fort Myers Beach, for spring break. The entire week they switched off designated drivers. One would remain sober, while the others enjoyed themselves. On the last night there, they decided that whoever was the least drunk, would drive. They knew that since it was their last night there, they should all be able to drink. They also decided to videotape themselves. The video shows the guys in their hotel room taking shots of Jager, laughing, talking about how awesome their spring break has been, and singing along to songs playing in the background. After a few minutes, the video cuts to all of them piled into their rented lincoln towncar, egging each other on and talking about how they're going to get the car up too 100 mph. One of the guys filming the video zooms in on the dashboard while the driver is accelerating as fast as he can. When the reach 100, they all shout and laugh. Ahead, there is nothing but a dark road, winding and curving. The video cuts once again to all the guys walking into a very empty bar. It's a bar on Sanibel that some of you may have been to before. When they come in, a man is playing his guitar and singing Jimmy Buffett songs. They begin to dance on the bare dance floor, and everyone in the audience laughs a little, since their dancing is not very good. They're all drunk, but decide to drink even more, so that they can continue dancing with no care. They talk about how they're going to leave Sanibel and head back to where their hotel room is on Fort Myers Beach. Before that, they decide they're going to go to a bar near their hotel.
When the video cuts again, there are still photos. The first is a cop car pulled over to the side of Perwinkle Way on Sanibel Island. The next photo is of their rental car, completed smashed in the front, the passenger seat non-existant, the windows shattered. The next few photos are of the car from various angles, and what once was a four-door sedan, no looks like a mustang convertable. When Mark Sterner came back out on stage, he talked about that eventful night. It wasn't supposed to end that way. They were just a bunch of college kids having fun on spring break.
He said that he woke up in Lee Memorial Hospital, and he didn't know where he was. He didn't remember the accident, or what had happened, or how he had gotten there. He fell back asleep, and woke up 2 weeks later. His family was there. The first thing he was told was, "You were in a car accident. Three of your friends are dead." After the next several days, police came in to give Mark the rundown of what had happened.
The guys had all decided that Mark was the least drunk to drive, so Mark put himself behind the wheel. They were going 60 mph when Mark hit a tree and him and one of his friends were flung from the front window. When the police arrived on the scene. They found one of the guys sitting in the ditch looking around. The asked him how many people were in the car, and the guy told him, "Five." The police found one of his friends in the passenger seat, crushed to death. Another was on the road, and people were trying to resusitate him, but he was also dead. The finally found Mark, and the fifth person, the length of two football fields down the road in the brush. Mark's friend was dead. But when they checked for Mark's pulse, he was alive.
The police told Mark, that if all of them had been wearing seatbelts, they might all still be alive today.
Mark was then sentenced to 45 years in person for vehicular manslaughter. He spent 9 months recovered back home, and returned to Florida to serve a 3 year sentence in jail, with 15 years of probation. A day doesn't go by that he doesn't think about his friends, or what they might be doing if they were still alive today.
Just one stupid mistake. One stupid night.
Think of your three best friends.
Think of an inside joke, or a really funny memory you have with those friends that nobody else understands.
Now think about what it would be like to wake up and have all of your friends be dead.
All of your friends are gone. And now, those jokes, and those memories, don't make you laugh, but make you cry.
Mark says the other guy who survived the accident lives in California now, and doesn't speak to Mark. His friend says it brings up too many bad memories. It's too hard to talk to Mark.
Mark has spoken to over 1 million students in colleges and highschools about this tragic night he endured over 10 years ago.
His last message, one that he always hopes people will listen to, is "When you away on spring break, come back."
If any of you read this, then I did my job.
His story touched me in a way that I cannot describe.
Maybe it's because I raised my hand when he asked everyone if they had ever done something stupid when drunk, or if they had driven a car drunk.
Maybe you read this and said to yourself, "I'm not that stupid." But then again, maybe you are.
Please look out for your friends, and look out for yourself.
How many of you have been in the passenger seat of a car when the person who was driving was drunk?
How many of you have driven a car drunk?
How many of you have gone away on spring break before?
How many of you are going away on spring break this year?
How many of you have killed three of your best friends, while driving drunk?
Two nights ago, a speaker came to Stetson to talk to us about the dangers of alcohol. Everyone assumed from the beginning that this was going to be another speech that no one wanted to listen to. Being lectured on the statistics of the U.S. in relation to alcohol is overdone, and completely ineffective.
But when I saw the projector on stage being set up, and a few short seconds of a film clip with several guys laughing and having a good time, I instantly remembered who this speaker was. His name is Mark Sterner. He spoke at my highschool about four or five years ago. In 1994, him and four of his best friends from college vacationed down to Sanibel Island, and Fort Myers Beach, for spring break. The entire week they switched off designated drivers. One would remain sober, while the others enjoyed themselves. On the last night there, they decided that whoever was the least drunk, would drive. They knew that since it was their last night there, they should all be able to drink. They also decided to videotape themselves. The video shows the guys in their hotel room taking shots of Jager, laughing, talking about how awesome their spring break has been, and singing along to songs playing in the background. After a few minutes, the video cuts to all of them piled into their rented lincoln towncar, egging each other on and talking about how they're going to get the car up too 100 mph. One of the guys filming the video zooms in on the dashboard while the driver is accelerating as fast as he can. When the reach 100, they all shout and laugh. Ahead, there is nothing but a dark road, winding and curving. The video cuts once again to all the guys walking into a very empty bar. It's a bar on Sanibel that some of you may have been to before. When they come in, a man is playing his guitar and singing Jimmy Buffett songs. They begin to dance on the bare dance floor, and everyone in the audience laughs a little, since their dancing is not very good. They're all drunk, but decide to drink even more, so that they can continue dancing with no care. They talk about how they're going to leave Sanibel and head back to where their hotel room is on Fort Myers Beach. Before that, they decide they're going to go to a bar near their hotel.
When the video cuts again, there are still photos. The first is a cop car pulled over to the side of Perwinkle Way on Sanibel Island. The next photo is of their rental car, completed smashed in the front, the passenger seat non-existant, the windows shattered. The next few photos are of the car from various angles, and what once was a four-door sedan, no looks like a mustang convertable. When Mark Sterner came back out on stage, he talked about that eventful night. It wasn't supposed to end that way. They were just a bunch of college kids having fun on spring break.
He said that he woke up in Lee Memorial Hospital, and he didn't know where he was. He didn't remember the accident, or what had happened, or how he had gotten there. He fell back asleep, and woke up 2 weeks later. His family was there. The first thing he was told was, "You were in a car accident. Three of your friends are dead." After the next several days, police came in to give Mark the rundown of what had happened.
The guys had all decided that Mark was the least drunk to drive, so Mark put himself behind the wheel. They were going 60 mph when Mark hit a tree and him and one of his friends were flung from the front window. When the police arrived on the scene. They found one of the guys sitting in the ditch looking around. The asked him how many people were in the car, and the guy told him, "Five." The police found one of his friends in the passenger seat, crushed to death. Another was on the road, and people were trying to resusitate him, but he was also dead. The finally found Mark, and the fifth person, the length of two football fields down the road in the brush. Mark's friend was dead. But when they checked for Mark's pulse, he was alive.
The police told Mark, that if all of them had been wearing seatbelts, they might all still be alive today.
Mark was then sentenced to 45 years in person for vehicular manslaughter. He spent 9 months recovered back home, and returned to Florida to serve a 3 year sentence in jail, with 15 years of probation. A day doesn't go by that he doesn't think about his friends, or what they might be doing if they were still alive today.
Just one stupid mistake. One stupid night.
Think of your three best friends.
Think of an inside joke, or a really funny memory you have with those friends that nobody else understands.
Now think about what it would be like to wake up and have all of your friends be dead.
All of your friends are gone. And now, those jokes, and those memories, don't make you laugh, but make you cry.
Mark says the other guy who survived the accident lives in California now, and doesn't speak to Mark. His friend says it brings up too many bad memories. It's too hard to talk to Mark.
Mark has spoken to over 1 million students in colleges and highschools about this tragic night he endured over 10 years ago.
His last message, one that he always hopes people will listen to, is "When you away on spring break, come back."
If any of you read this, then I did my job.
His story touched me in a way that I cannot describe.
Maybe it's because I raised my hand when he asked everyone if they had ever done something stupid when drunk, or if they had driven a car drunk.
Maybe you read this and said to yourself, "I'm not that stupid." But then again, maybe you are.
Please look out for your friends, and look out for yourself.