Sisters teenagers leave their mark on drinking issue

Riley Burdick and Mark Macpherson trace a chalk outline of cooperative victim A.J. Sells.

Cascade Avenue looked like an episode of "CSI" last Thursday, August 29.

Almost 100 chalk silhouettes of bodies had been drawn around town the night before by Sisters area teens. It wasn't graffiti.

Caitlin Partridge, one of the participants, explained, "We are trying to create awareness of the problem of underage drinking."

Outlines of bodies were traced with chalk in front of businesses on Cascade Avenue.

"We started at the Space Age gas station and worked our way to the Country Pumphouse on the other side of town, and then we went to the other side of the street from (Wild) Dusty Rose to the Snow Cap," said Karianne Aaron, of the Juvenile Empowerment Team (JET) with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

"In all, we drew about 100 body outlines. We also included information and statistics about underage drinking to educate the public about the problem. For example, the average teen starts drinking at age 13."

Teresse MacKenzie, one of the students, added, "It creates a visual of bodies to symbolize the problem."

The youths are part of STOP (Sisters Teens Organizing Prevention), and the human outline project was their first organized activity.

"We had to first get city council approval, and then we got the okay from 23 businesses. They were so supportive. The bakery gave us donuts, and Papandrea's gave us pizza and drinks. It was very encouraging," said Aaron.

About 15 students then ran around town in a frenzy of chalk tracing.

These are students who acknowledge that underage drinking is a problem, and they want to do something about it. They reject the popular image that all teenagers are party animals.

Nina Robart, from the Oregon Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking, provided the rationale for the event.

"It is first a health issue," Robart said. "Underage drinking affects the health of kids physically, mentally and socially. Kids who drink at 13 or 14 are much more likely to be addicted as adults.

Alcohol poisoning, drunk driving and boating accidents mostly involve young drinkers.

Alcohol consumption at a young age also affects mental formation and ability.