By Alec Perez ‘14

Contrary to expectations, Every Fifteen Minutes will not be occurring this spring. The school and PTSA determined that the inability to find volunteers was too big of a hurdle to overcome.

Sharon St. Pierre, Sherwood’s PTSA President, had been a leading force in bringing the event to the school. “This program takes a great deal of time, volunteers, community outreach and money to put … on each time. I found while in 2010 I was able to get volunteers needed to help with executing the program as well as helping to run it the two days, in 2012 it was much harder to find volunteers,” said St. Pierre.

Every Fifteen Minutes occurs every two years at a participating school and its purpose is to inform students about the risks of drinking and driving. The production consists of two days. On the first day the juniors and seniors are informed of a terrible accident in the upper parking lot of the school. Once there, they see two wrecked cars as a result of a drunk driver hitting another car. Policemen arrest the drunk driver and an ambulance rushes victims to the hospital. On the second day an assembly that includes outside speakers is held for the juniors and seniors.

Principal Bill Gregory still wants students to be aware of the harm of drinking and driving. “The program raised an awareness among the school community and students in terms of responsibility. We’re looking for other types of programs to be brought into the school. Before we had Every Fifteen Minutes we had programs in which we brought in guest speakers, so that is always a possibility,” said Gregory.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 27 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes every day in the United States.