Sumner County Fair Board to sell Mocktails as an alternate to alcohol at this year’s event
Sumner Newscow report — The Sumner County Fair Board is sponsoring a fundraiser for the DUI Victims Center. The board at this year’s fair, to be held in Aug. 4-6, will be selling Mocktails as an alternative to alcohol and have activities involving beer goggles to inform the public about the dangers of driving while impaired. The following article is from the DUI Victims Center of Kansas issued through the Sumner County Fair Board.
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Across Kansas, we are losing friends, family, and precious people in our lives and our communities. And we are choosing the loss by choosing to drive impaired. Whenever we decide we are “good enough” to drive, we are playing Russian roulette with our lives and whoever else might be on the road.
In Kansas, 109 people were killed in impaired driving crashes in 2021. We wait with heavy hearts for the 2022 data at the DUI Victims Center of Kansas. We know that these are more than just numbers. We have met their parents, their children, their spouses. We know that 1 of the 109 in 2021 was 19-year-old Clayton Patterson. A 4th-time offender killed him. And in 2022, 19-year-old Kaitlin Greenman was hit and killed by an impaired driver as she rendered aid to someone injured in another crash.
The DUI Victims Center of Kansas was started in 1986 after Mary Ann Khoury’s best friend and unborn child were killed by an impaired driver. Unfortunately, since then, many more families and individuals have been changed forever by impaired driving. Our mission is to support victims and survivors of DUI crashes and work in the community to prevent future DUIs.
Our support for injury and fatality victims ranges from paying for counseling and medical equipment to walking alongside families through the court process. Many of the victims and survivors we serve have suffered catastrophic physical, financial, and emotional damages. They have lost the ability to walk, drive, provide for their families, and have children. The ripple effect of each of these crashes reaches far into the future.
But we also believe that education, prevention, and having honest conversations can improve driving outcomes for our and future generations. Your support helps us reach more minds, save more lives, and support those victims of this devastating, preventable injustice.
Driving sober is a badge of honor. It is one choice we can make every day that makes us heroes and not villains in someone else’s story. We ask that you decide that one impaired driving death is too many and Decide to Drive Sober with the DUI Victims Center of Kansas. We are grateful to be a part of the Sumner County Fair this year with ‘warped cornhole,’ awareness and memorial items, and delicious mocktails for the Designated Driving Heroes!
Because friends don’t let friends drive impaired, and neighbors support neighbors who drive sober!
In 2022, our prevention education reached 2,500 people across the state. We provided advocacy and support services to over 30 individuals and families. We partnered with over 20 organizations and services to meet the needs of DUI crash victims and survivors. We honored the lives of over 500 victims and survivors at our Annual Candlelight Vigil. We traveled over 300 miles to deliver ribbons and magnets with KS DUI crash victims’ names to 35 police departments across the state. We are a small and mighty team that cares deeply about Kansas communities and the families we serve. And with your help, the impact of this lifesaving work will grow. We appreciate the Board of Directors of the Sumner County Fair for choosing the DUI Victims Center as the awareness project this year. We hope you will come see us at the fair and pledge to be Hero!
