FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2010
Contact Information:
Angela Conover, Director of Media and Community Relations
Phone: 973.467.2100, ext. 24
E-mail: conover@drugfreenj.org

 Winners of Underage Drinking Prevention Contests Announced

Winners of the 2010 Listen-Up to the Dangers of Underage Drinking Radio PSA Contest and the Dangers of Underage Drinking "How Alcohol Affects Middle School Students" Billboard Calendar Competition are pictured with Angelo M. Valente, Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey and New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow.

Winners of the 2010 Listen-Up to the Dangers of Underage Drinking Radio PSA Contest and the Dangers of Underage Drinking "How Alcohol Affects Middle School Students" Billboard Calendar Competition are pictured with Angelo M. Valente, Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey and Jerry Fischer, Director of the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

MILLBURN-- The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ) once again partnered with the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (NJ ABC) to educate young people about the dangers of underage drinking.

“The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is once again pleased to work with the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control to help get important and life saving underage drinking prevention messages out to the residents of New Jersey through billboard images created by middle school students, which utilize peer-to-peer prevention messages, as well as radio Public Service Announcements to New Jersey parents which bring to light the pressures of underage drinking as experienced by middle school students,” Angelo Valente, the Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey said. “It is only by working together that we can get these important messages out and help stem the tide of underage drinking in New Jersey.”

Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Jerry Fischer added, "The Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is sending a strong message that underage drinking can have not just legal ramifications, but also life-changing consequences that affect the drinker and all of the people whose lives the drinker may shatter.”

Two underage drinking prevention initiatives were sponsored during the 2009/2010 school year by the PDFNJ and NJ ABC and the winners were announced on July 1, 2010 at a press event in Wildwood, Cape May County. 

The “Listen-Up to the Dangers of Underage Drinking” Radio PSA Initiative is a contest for middle school students. The “Listen-Up” program challenged young people to create a script for a 30-second radio public service announcement that talked directly to parents about the dangers of underage alcohol use. The winning students produced and starred in the radio spots, which were produced in English and in Spanish, and will be distributed to stations in the New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia media market. The winners who created the English public service announcement were: Helene Horn Blau, Emily Zimmermann and Emily Fusco, each of Cinnaminson, and Alexa Kline of Beverly. The winners who created the Spanish public service announcement were: Amanda Zurlo and Valerie Moran, both of Brick. 

Also, for the eighth year, the “Dangers of Underage Drinking” Billboard/Calendar Competition was held. This statewide initiative is designed to encourage middle school students and their parents to work together to create billboard/calendar messages with the theme “Dangers of Underage Drinking.”

Thirteen winning messages were chosen and will be featured on a calendar to be distributed to middle schools at the start of the 2011 calendar year. One message will be featured each month, and the grand-prize winning message will be displayed on the calendar’s front cover. Additionally, the grand-prize winning message will be reproduced on highway billboards throughout the state. The grand prize winner is listed below with the finalists:

 Grand Prize:Kerry Dyke of Perth Amboy. 

 Finalists: Xavier Newman of South Orange; Kirsten Anastasio of Rosland; Emily Dufner of Short Hills; Katie Gettings of Summit; Mackenzie Nyhuis and Samantha Allen, both of Ringwood; Ileana Guerrero of Perth Amboy; Bria Roskowski of Keasbey; Maria Agnese of Bernardsville; Gabriel Ribeiro and Sydney Esteves of Newark; and Clara Marie D. Talban of Belleville.

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