AAI To Introduce Community To TADD
The SHSU Alcohol Abuse Initiative will help welcome a new
organization with similar goals to the Huntsville community
on Tuesday (June 27).
Those Against Drunk Driving director Judith Tomlinson will
discuss the TADD organization, its goals and seek volunteers
for starting a new chapter in Huntsville at Kaldi’s
Coffee House at 7 p.m. for any interested area or university
community members.
Volunteers will be sought to inform people of the organization
by distributing literature around the community, giving speeches
and fundraising in different respects.
“Ms. Tomlinson is looking for student and community
volunteers, but what she really needs is a super-volunteer
to basically do a full-time job as the area coordinator, who
would be responsible for finding funding for the organization,
coordinating volunteers, and ensuring their sustainability
in Huntsville,” said Michelle Lovering, SHSU Student
Health Center health programming coordinator and Alcohol Abuse
Initiative member.
“Part of their (TADD’s) mission includes reconciliation
with DWI offenders and reparations for victims, so she may
want to work with TDC (Texas Department of Criminal Justice,”
she said.
The Alcohol Abuse Initiative will collaborate with TADD, once
the organization gets off the ground, on some of the alcohol-related
issues the AAI is already working on, as well as invite TADD
members to speak at various AAI events, Lovering said.
“SHSU’s involvement in their introduction to the
community is important in that part of our mission is to coordinate
efforts to inform, educate, and change perceptions about alcohol
abuse on campus and in the community,” Lovering said.
“We will continue to work with every entity that shares
our goals,” she said. “TADD will be able to be
a part of our community/state relations committee once they
are organized.”
The non-profit organization was founded in 1988 as Texans
Against Drunk Driving but was changed to Those Against Drunk
Driving when Tomlinson introduced the organization to Britain
in 1996.
The SHSU AAI shares many goals with TADD, including the goal
to make drunk driving unacceptable in our community and beyond,
according to Lovering, although some of TADD’s methods
are different than those of the AAI.
According to the TADD Web site, the organization bases its
“efforts on this wisdom from Lincoln and on the admonishments
of Christ to be compassionate and forgiving even as we would
wish to receive the same.”
“TADD believes in making drunk driving unacceptable
through education and incentives and that the whole of society
has a responsibility and an opportunity to make a difference,”
Lovering said. “TADD does not believe in turning their
back on perpetrators; they are people whose attitudes need
adjusting.
“TADD believes in the 3 ‘R’s: Rehabilitation,
Reparation and Reconciliation,” she said.
Kaldi’s Coffee House is located on the corner of Sam
Houston Avenue and 17th Street.
For more about TADD, attend the community meeting or contact
Tomlinson at tadd-us@virgin.net
or for more information about the Alcohol Abuse Initiative,
visit www.shsu.edu/aai
or contact the AAI Coordinator, Rosanne Keathley, at 936.294.1171.
—END—
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer
Gauntt
June 23, 2006
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