MONROE — SSM Health Monroe Hospital and Green County emergency response organizations provided education at the 2024 “Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth” (P.A.R.T.Y.) Program on Oct. 2. Over 650 students from 15 local high schools attended to learn how decisions they make related to alcohol and drug use affect everyone around them.

The program included a dramatization featuring student actors, SSM Health Monroe Hospital physicians and nurses, Green County emergency medical services, Monroe police officers, the Green County Sheriff, and community firefighters. Testimonials from a Green County Deputy Coroner, a Green County judge and the personal stories of individuals directly affected by their own choices, or the choices of others related to driving under the influence, were also shared.

“I think kids aren’t fully aware that these are choices they’re making when they decide to drink and drive or to use drugs and get into a car,” said Mary Tessendorf, SSM Health Monroe Hospital Trauma Coordinator. “They don’t foresee the potential of what can happen under those circumstances.” 

It is the P.A.R.T.Y. Program Committee’s hope that students will remember this program and be able to identify a risky situation, and a safer alternative, before it’s too late.