In the News

Red Ribbon campaign begins
The Observer
By Paul Morden
November 8, 2009

Chantel Parkes spent the 12th anniversary of her father's death attaching red ribbons to white crosses at an intersection in Brigden.

She was one of a dozen volunteers out Saturday helping Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Sarnia-Lambton setup a display of 270 crosses at the corner of Brigden Road and Courtright Line.

The crosses symbolize the estimated number of people impaired drivers will kill in Canada this November and December.

This is the eighth year for the display, said Chantel's grandmother, Mary Parkes, a member of MADD Sarnia-Lambton. The location moves each season.

"We started at Michigan and Modeland, the scene where my son was killed 12 years ago today," Parkes said.

"He had just turned 40. Three young children. It has been devastating."

Chantel was 14 at the time of the collision caused by an impaired driver.

She said this was the second time Project Red Ribbon day fell on the anniversary of her father's death.

"The day's always so difficult, and you don't know what to do," she said.

She welcomed the chance to travel back to Sarnia and help her grandmother and the other campaign volunteers.

"It's nice that we can do something to remember him, and honour him a little bit."

She was 16 when she began volunteering with her grandmother on MADD projects. A few years ago, she went to work for MADD at its national office in Oakville, working on its youth programs.

She believes MADD's message is having an impact.

"Over the last couple of years there has not been a decline in impaired driving deaths and injuries but I think there are a lot more people aware," she said. "There are a lot more people being caught."

OPP Staff Sgt. Scott Janssens said Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) checkpoints are operating every day on the roads the force patrols in Lambton County.

The county sees some of the highest numbers of impaired driving charges in the OPP's western region.

The penalties for getting caught have gone up but drivers are still getting behind the wheel impaired, he said.

Janssens came out Saturday to help set up the crosses, bringing his son and daughter along with him.

"We try to come every year," he said.

In other parts of Sarnia-Lambton, Lambton College students and other volunteers were manning voluntary tolls at shopping centres to raise money for MADD.

Donors received a red ribbon and information on MADD's Campaign 911.

"We're urging the public to call the police if they suspect an impaired driver," Chantel said.

The campaign is working and people are calling, she added.

"They realize they have an opportunity to stop it."

After all the crosses were pounded into place, and the red ribbons fastened, the volunteers gathered while Craig Callister, pastor at the People's Church, led a short dedication service.

Callister, a former police officer, said, "We would love to put up half the crosses next year, and half as many the year after that."

Chantel said the crosses are a reminder of what can happen when people drive impaired.

"Maybe they'll think twice."

Also see...

MADD Canada's Project Red Ribbon campaign