UWindsor students will be educated on responsible drinking and treated to giveaways on Monday, October 15, in the CAW Student Centre Commons during the Beats Over Buzz event, part of a year-round alcohol education campaign.

The Alcohol Education Team will host the event to promote awareness about the issue of drunk driving and how it can be avoided, says student alcohol education coordinator Nevin MacLeod.

“Ultimately, drinking and driving is all too common,” MacLeod says. “Despite the heartwrenching stories you hear and the commercials you watch involving drunk driving, it still happens and people are paying the price in so many ways.”

The team will run an information booth and encourage sensible drinking with alcohol-free drinks at the mocktail bar.

“The mocktail bar is a safer alternative for people, including designated drivers, who want to have fun without alcoholic drinks,” MacLeod explains. “Those individuals deserve to have an enjoyable drink rather than feel ostracized.”

For a better understanding of how alcohol works in the body, the team will be joined by a representative from the Ministry of Transportation who will demonstrate the use of an intoxiclock.

“Each person’s reaction to alcohol depends on his or her sex, height, weight, alcohol consumption and other factors,” says MacLeod. “The intoxiclock will help determine this by calculating the amount of time it takes for alcohol to be processed and fully out of the body.”

Students who visit the booth will get to complete the e-CHUG challenge—an online self-assessment tool that provides feedback on a participant’s alcohol consumption—to earn a ballot in a draw for a pair of Dr. Dre Beats Solo headphones.

— by Chantelle Myers