Youth gather at a suicide-prevention event held April 14, 2008, in Watford City. It was sponsored by Horizons: Leadership in Poverty Reduction, and later Horizons merged with the McKenzie County Community Coalition, known as MC3. MC3 is having a town hall meeting April 14. Courtesy photo
The McKenzie County Community Coalition is working to educate citizens about the issue, as well as issues like suicide and drug use. Also known as MC3, the commission invites the public to a town hall meeting on April 14 that focuses on underage drinking.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. with a “bring your own salad” supper. It continues with an update from last year’s panel participants, rotating table discussions and an opportunity for the public to get more involved in prevention and education efforts regarding underage drinking in the future.
Panelists include Watford City police chief Daryl Vance, McKenzie County Sheriff Ron Rankin, Watford City fire chief Ben Weltikol, county director of Social Services Amy Fast and Watford City Mayor Kent Pelton.
Updates from MC3’s progress since last year include financial support it offered for a compliance check program aimed at curbing the purchase of alcohol and tobacco by minors ” the “It’s a Crime” campaign in which the coalition labeled water bottles to promote an anti-underage drinking slogan and the beginning of a mentoring program, states a press release from member Dale Swenson of Arnegard. Although she didn’t have recent figures, Swenson said in youth risk behavior surveys determining what percentage of students have had at least one drink or more, Watford City scored the highest in the region.
A 2007 survey for high school students shows 87.1 percent of Watford City High School students had at least one drink. This compares to 77 percent in Region 1, which includes Divide and Williams counties, and 73.9 percent statewide.
Swenson has been a member of MC3 since it formed in 2002 and said the group has focused on educating the public on various issues with seminars and and other efforts.
Its first town hall meeting last year carried the them of “Mapping Out Successes for Our Children.”
MC3 member Dorothy Reil of Alexander joined in 2006 when the group worked on a poverty study. Reil was the only one from Alexander involved in the study at the time and she wanted her community to be represented.
Reil said MC3 is getting the word out on important issues a lot of people tend to ignore or want to ignore.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot of interest. No one wants to admit there’s a poverty problem, no one wants to admit there’s a teenage drinking problem,” Reil said.
For more information about the town hall meeting and MC3 in general, call Swenson at 701-586-3340, Reil at 701-828-3157 or Katie Paulson, SADD chapters advisor, at 701-289-0135.
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