A Letter From the Student Trustees
Kyle Ali- University of Missouri Columbia Sam Filkins-
Baldwin Wallace College
The spring season represents a time of great
scholastic and extracurricular productivity within the
academic community. With one month of winter left
and Area Conferences in the near future, on behalf of
the Student Advisory Committee and all of the
professionals and volunteers of The BACCHUS
network, we would like to extend our best wishes for
a successful second semester.
The Student Advisory Committee convened in Denver
during winter recess. Following a very productive
summit, we are confident that this year will be
marked by great progress.
Each spring our 12 areas host a regional conference.
Area conferences serve as an open forum for the
exchange of a diverse collection of ideas and
perspectives on a wide variety of subjects relevant
to the causes of network-affiliated organizations.
The best and brightest from institutions across your
regions will be in attendance. It is our hope that you
and your fellow peers will be able to participate in
this unique learning experience. If you have an event
on your campus that prevents your attendance at
your own area conference, you might consider
another area conference nearby.
Sexual Responsibility Week 2007 materials are now
available. As has been the case for years, BACCHUS
is a leader in promoting student-friendly sexual health
information, the empowerment of abstinence as a
healthy choice, and the connections between alcohol
abuse and unhealthy sexual decisions. The purpose
of the week is to provide all of our affiliates with a
highly visible spark for what we hope is a year round
commitment to sexual health issues and programming
in your campus community.
Many people like to create their own Sexual
Responsibility Week in February around Valentine’s
Day. Some people like to do their sexual health
awareness on the week before Spring Break. Others
find it difficult to conduct an entire week of sexual
health events, but instead try to do a day or two of
programming. As always, we leave it to our affiliates
to decide what is best for them.
The opportunities to become more involved in The
BACCHUS Network are endless, we hope that you’ll
seek them out and continue to serve as change
agents within your campus community.
Best,
Kyle B. Ali and Sam Filkins
Kyle Ali is a junior at the University of Missouri-
Columbia majoring in Political Science. A former SAC
member (Area 5), he is also active in the Office of
Leadership Development on his campus.
Sam Filkins is a junior Communications/Psychology
major at Baldwin Wallace College. A former SAC
member (Area 7), he currently serves as student
body president of his institution.
Quick Links...
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Welcome to Another Year with BACCHUS!
What an exciting year to be a part of Area 8!
As affiliates of The BACCHUS Network, you
will be receiving this newsletter to keep you
up to date on peer education issues and
opportunities pertaining to Area 8. The first
opportunity of the year is the Area 8 & 9 conference
at Florida State University in Tallahassee this month.
Moreover, General Assembly will be hosted nearby in
Atlanta, Georgia this November!
To help you begin planning to attend
this national conference, I have featured fundraising
tips in this volume. Yet regardless of whether you
can attend either conference, the goal of this
newsletter is to provide you with the resources to
stay connected to BACCHUS and develop your peer
education programs to their full potential. I will
feature articles of interest in health topics, news
from the national level of BACCHUS, and most of all,
regional stories concerning peer education in
Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. This
newsletter is one step in connecting Area 8, and I
hope you will contribute by sharing your peer
education group's pictures, suggesting topics for
articles you would find helpful, and contacting me if
your campus hosts a great program or campaign that
should be celebrated by Area 8.
I am glad to be beginning my term as SAC as I work
toward completing my junior year at Rhodes College
in Memphis, and I know our communication
throughout Area 8 can extend beyond this
newsletter. Peer education in Area 8 is stronger this
year than in many years previous, and I hope this
newsletter is merely a foundation for the developing
dialogue between our campus organizations. I know
we have much to learn from one another, and I look
forward to staying in contact.
Tara Daniel, Area 8 SAC
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Area 8 Conference
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Area 8 has been invited to join the Area 9
Conference in Tallahassee Florida February 16-17!
This opportunity will allow Area 8 advisors and peer
educators to share their experiences and learn from
one another as they participate in Certified Peer
Educator Training, become engaged by key speakers,
and
attend breakout sessions to improve their peer
education knowledge and get new ideas.
Friday, CPE training for both advisors and students
will coincide with a workshop session and a SIDNE
vehicle demontration simulating driving impairment.
That evening, the conference attendees will come
together to hear Tony Carvajal share his insights on
leadership and participate in his team-building and
mixer activities before spending an evening bonding
at a bowling activity, seeing a comedian, or watching
a movie.
Saturday will be filled with workshops presented by
peer educators and advisors from multiple states,
and speakers sponsored by the Florida Higher
Education Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention
Coalition will also address conference attendees.
After lunch, Area 8 will meet to discuss the strengths
and weaknesses of our area and our role in the
national organization. Mark Sterner, imprisoned after
being the driver in a fatal DUI incident, will share his
story before the conference closes Saturday
afternoon.
This conference is a valuable experience for anyone
involved in any level of peer education: newer peer
educators can receive CPE training, more
experienced peer educators and advisors can share
their successes and frustrations as well as
brainstorm, and advisors new to BACCHUS can get
ideas for mobilizing their own peer education
chapters. If you are able, take advantage of this
opportunity! E-mail area8sac@bacchusnetwork.org
immediately for registration materials. The deadline
is February 1.
If this conference sounds like a great idea to you,
but your campus cannot make it this year, make a
commitment to attend next year. We hope to have
our very own Area 8 conference in 2008 in a much
closer locale. If you would
like to help make this goal a reality, e-mail
area8sac@bacchusnetwork.org.
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Fundraising Ideas
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Finding funding to sponsor programs and attend
conferences may be a perennial task for some peer
educators, but it does not have to be a miserable
one. Here are some twists on old favorites:
Sell dougnuts in the morning before
and between classes instead of an afternoon bake
sale.
Silent Auctions: Have students donate
those items they are not taking back home with them
at the end of the semester: bookshelves, VCRs,
formal dresses. Rather than having some students
comb the trash piles and dumpsters for finds, they
can pay a small price and everyone wins.
Selling a Service (such as yard work): This
work itself is hardly innovative, but use this chance
to team-build with your peer educators, and this
fundraiser will be all the more valuable.
Peer education can offer the chance to get your
message out to your campus. Capitalize on peer
education with these ideas.
Selling condom roses: Include a few facts
about sexual responsibility, and these novelty items
will sell themselves. Making them together as a
group can also be a great chance for peer educators
to brainstorm and plan other events.
Hold a carwash and provide brochures or
handouts on safe driving and do a seatbelt safety
check as the cars leave.
Jail n' Bails can be outstanding generators of
money, and they offer a great chance to share
information about the consequences of DUIs.
Selling your mocktailscan work well at a
music or other entertainment event on campus. For
a lesson more lasting than handing out brochures
about mixed drinks, drink size, or party tips, someone
can "drug" the drinks of the inattentive with M&Ms
(then provide another drink on the house). A tips jar
also generates some revenue.
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BACCHUS on Facebook
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The BACCHUS Network now has a global group on
facebook! Connect with SACs, Student Trustees,
and peer educators across not only in your area, but
also across the entire country. To join, view your
groups and search "The BACCHUS Network" at the
bottom of the page.
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Triumphs And Hurdles for the New HPV Vaccine
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Significant progress in women's health was made this
summer when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) approved the first vaccine to prevent cervical
cancer. The vaccine was given the green light for
use in younger women, as a way to protect against
human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted
virus that causes cervical cancer.
"This is the first vaccine for a cancer ever
developed," said Phyllis Greenberger, president of the
Society for Women's Health Research and chair of
the Partnership to Prevent Cervical Cancer, a
coalition of American organizations and individuals
dedicated to making the vaccine part of routine
health care for all women in the United
States. "Cervical cancer is the only cancer for which
we know the cause and can provide a method of
prevention that is successful in a vast majority of
cases. This is a tremendous breakthrough that will
save lives and reduce excess medical costs."
The FDA has deemed the vaccine safe and effective
for girls and women ages nine to 26 and studies are
underway to determine the vaccine's usefulness for
women over the age of 26 and for boys and men.
Other vaccines are also in development.
"The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
(a federal panel of 15 experts) has recommended the
HPV vaccine for females ages 11-12," explains Janet
Gilsdorf, M.D., professor and director of pediatric
infectious diseases at the University of Michigan
Medical Center in Ann Arbor. "Females ages 13-26
should also be vaccinated."
The vaccine is specifically recommended for girls 11-
12 because researchers discovered that the
maximum benefit from the vaccine occurs when it is
given prior to the first sexual experience. The
vaccine does not work as well for those who have
already been exposed to the virus, but most women
will still benefit from getting the vaccine because
they will be protected against other virus types
contained in the vaccine.
This article excerpted from Medical News Today
(24 November 2006).
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