The point of the outing taken last Friday by about 60 high schoolers from Sterling Heights, Warren, Fraser and Shelby and Macomb townships was to steer the kids away from choices they or their friends might literally die for -- namely drunken driving.
The field trip April 4 was the fifth year of a program organized by the City of Sterling Heights DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program along with Kart 2 Kart in Sterling Heights. The track and conference center is owned by Grosse Pointe Woods resident Tony Eckrich.
Eckrich, a father of two, closes down his 8-year-old business twice a year for the program and pays his employees to give 60-80 visiting students "exposure to something that can save lives," he said.
The program, Drive Smart Drive Safe, is held in October around homecoming and in April prior to prom and graduation "and the temptations with alcohol they bring," Eckrich said.
"This event gives us a chance to educate students about the dangers of alcohol as we head into the high school prom season and the parties that are often held afterward," said Bev Zuelch, DARE officer for the City of Sterling Heights and coordinator of the program.
"We want students to understand that drinking and driving, as well as underage drinking, can have horrible consequences and that you don't have to consume alcohol in order to have a good time," Zuelch said.
Drive Smart Drive Safe is divided into two parts over four hours. One part has the students driving the go-karts around a track wearing Fatal Vision goggles, also called drunk goggles. The protective glasses mimic alcohol's effect on vision by distorting it and showing how coordination and control decrease.
Walk the line
Security officers from Utica Community Schools, police and public safety officers from Sterling Heights and Fraser, and deputies from the Macomb County Sheriff's Department ran students through sobriety tests.
Walking a straight line was impossible for most. Catching a bouncing ball was even more difficult. Afterward, the students put on helmets and drove. The majority failed to steer through obstacle courses.
Hitting the barriers and feeling so disoriented is a lesson that sticks with you, said Vinny Giancona, 17, a junior from Eisenhower High School in Shelby Township and a resident of Macomb Township.
"We're supposed to take the knowledge we get here back to the student body," he said.
They won't do it through formal presentations. "We'll talk to people at parties, wherever we're out," Giancona said.
Students like Giancona were selected for their ability to lead and influence schoolmates, organizers said.
"What we've found is that kids listen to these kids," said Jerry Griesback, a retired Sterling Heights police officer and security specialist for Utica Community Schools.
After three years of involvement with the program, Griesback said, "I've heard about the kids who had too much to drink and they kept them from driving."
Henry Piechowski, a retiree from the Warren Police Department and another security specialist with the Utica schools, said the kids talk about the event after they leave.
"They get it. It sinks in," he said. "Of course, being able to ride in a go-kart is a lot of fun."
The excitement might have been on the track with the rumbling cars and squealing tires, but there was a different emotion inside a conference room. An audience was engrossed in the words of judges and law enforcement officials and a family profoundly affected by a drunken driver.
Dan Media, chief of training for the Sterling Heights Fire Department, described how occupants of crashed cars have to be cut out of the vehicles to be helped. With the aid of pictures, he told them how occupants injure each other as they are thrown around inside the cars.
Sterling Heights traffic officer Brian Krueger talked about investigating drunken driving crashes and about the sadness and loss he has seen. Judge Kimberley Wiegand and Magistrate Michael Piatek, both of 41A District Court in Sterling Heights, talked about the legal ramifications of driving drunk.
While their words held the students' attention, the story of Brad Jones, a 24-year-old not much different in appearance from the students, touched them, moving some to tears.
A future ripped away
Jones, a 2002 Fraser High graduate who lives in Clinton Township, was in his first year of a scholarship at Oakland University when a friend took away Jones' plans for the future by driving drunk, crashing his car and then fleeing the scene -- even with Jones, his passenger, seriously injured.
"They said I could never walk or talk again," Jones told the students.
He walked and talked slowly -- the closed-head injury he received in the crash slowed his speech and reading, as well as movement on the right side of his body.
Before he got up to speak, his mother, Donna Jones, told the students: "He can never drive again. He can't just go to his friend's house when he wants."
Brad and Donna Jones work with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, traveling around to speak to groups, including youths and adult offenders passing through the 37th District Court in Warren.
Brad Jones is still angry about his former friend's lack of sympathy. He cursed at times during the presentation as he talked about how the friend became a lawyer even as Jones struggled for pain-free normalcy.
"The driver did not care," he said.
Before the crash, Jones played football, hockey and baseball. He read to the group about such highlights of his young life from sheets of notebook paper, written on front and on back, turning them to continue sharing his life story.
He talked about his '92 Pontiac Grand Prix and the "thumping" speakers. He got laughs when he imitated the deep beat along with a rap about himself.
Behind him was a screen with a picture of him in the hospital, immobile and surrounded by machines.
"I can tell you, don't end up like me," he told the students. "The doctors gave me a 1% chance to live. ... Use that thing between your ears. It's called a brain."
Alex Wolak, 18, a senior from Utica High School, cried as Jones read to the crowd about parts of his life story before the crash. "What really got to me was how he had to read about his life from a paper, all the things he did."
Zuelch, the DARE officer who organized the day, ended the presentation as the students stared, some stunned.
"You have been greatly impacted by what you've seen and heard today. I can see by the look on your faces," she said. "If you do anything, take this message back with you. ... This is also a lesson in choosing your friends wisely. ...You guys really have to think about that."
"It always gets pretty emotional, which is good. That means they're getting the message," she said afterward.
Zuelch and Eckrich would like to see the program expanded. Currently, it relies on businesses to make donations to feed the participants and on volunteers, except for Eckrich's paid employees, to teach the kids.
"We had businesses that were really generous. Little Caesars gave us pizza for lunch, Jimmy John's gave us sandwiches. Starbucks donated coffee. Dunkin' Donuts donated Munchkins," she said. "We want to figure out how to make it larger, but we can only ask for so much from the same businesses."
Eckrich is moving his business from Van Dyke near 18 Mile to 14 Mile and John R. in May, and calling it the Apex. The new facility will have more tracks and electric cars, a full-service Italian restaurant, conference rooms and a climbing wall.
And he's hoping to take the Drive Smart Drive Safe program to the general public.
"When this idea first came up, I thought, 'Hey, we can make something like this work.' It's something that helps the community and it's good PR of course," Eckrich said. "Now I have parents call about sending their child to this program. ... Maybe we'll find a Triple A or maybe a local car dealer who wants some exposure.
"This would be a great complement to drivers ed. It's a program that is worthwhile to bring to others.
"We just need to figure out how to make it happen."
Contact KIM NORTH SHINE at 313-223-4557 or kshine@freepress.com.
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