Blog
Remember the Social Host law
As we roll into the Holiday season, where college kids will be home, and high school/middle school kids will be out of school for a few days, we want to remind everyone of South Dakota’s Social Host law. It provides a penalty (up to $2,000) if you knowingly host an alcohol party for minors - whether its at your residence, or a hotel room, or anywhere that you are in charge of. So please, keep kids safe, and let me know - early on - that you will not condone or be a party to underage drinking. Keep the Holidays merry and bright, for now, and for the future!
December Newsletter
What a busy couple of months it has been! October and November were packed with Teen Mental Health Trainings, LifeSkills classes, High School Prevention Day, Middle School Hope Squad sessions... I think we’re all ready for a few days off to celebrate the Christmas Holiday!
This newsletter is jam-packed full of many of the trainings and classes we completed recently. All the students were so engaged, that it made the instructions a joy to share!
As I’ve said before, we would not be able to do the prevention work we do, without the incredible support we get from the school district’s administrators, staff, and the Board of Education. They are truly committed to helping their (our) students, in every way! They really do care, and I am glad we are here to help fill the need in offering behavioral health services to our school and community.
At their last regular board meeting, the WRSD Board of Education approved our offering a Youth Risk Behavior Survey to students in grades 6-12. We have been doing this annual survey for 13 years, and it is instrumental in knowing what students are using, with regard to drugs, alcohol and tobacco, but also why they are using these substances, their perception of harm, and outside influences. This information helps drive us in the work we plan for the upcoming year. Letters will be sent to each parent in the next few weeks explaining the survey, which will be given to the students sometime in early January via Survey Monkey. All answers are anonymous and will be evaluated by Mountain Plains Evaluation. We will share the results here later, and welcome everyone’s input and advice!
Our Upcoming Events is pretty small this month. We hope everyone has a wonderful, and SAFE Christmas and New Year’s Eve!
Joyce Glynn,
MGM Coalition Prevention Specialist
November Newsletter
Finally getting our November newsletter published and printed. It was a busy, busy, busy October! And November is looking like it will be just as busy. That’s the way we like it! As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, please send them our way. We love to get everyone’s input!
Where we are today!
Here we are! Our own dedicated website! Sometimes I can’t believe where we are today, compared to my initial reason for wanting to form the Michael Glynn Memorial Coalition. Back in the summer of 2008, my only goal was to raise funds to provide a safe, alcohol-free graduation celebration for our youngest son and his classmates, in 2009. Graduations have been difficult for me to attend, and I was experiencing serious flashbacks and worry for that upcoming graduation, especially. This wonderful community I now belong too, came through with help, and that event was hugely successful! Although I had no plans to advance any “work” of the MGM Coalition, God and Michael must have had other plans. And here we are.
We now offer a plethora of substance use/abuse prevention curriculum to the students in our school, as well as behavioral health and suicide prevention training for students and adults in the community. It has become a full-time job, and I love it. I often hesitate to say that I love my job, because I know the only reason I am doing what I am doing now, is because of Michael’s death. On one hand it seems wrong; but on the other hand, it feels right to make something positive come from his death. I know we are making a difference. Kids are resonating with our messages, and positive changes are happening.
After Michael’s death, I found it comforting to write my thoughts and feelings. I continued to use the Caring Bridge website as my platform. When I quit that, a dear friend had printed all of my posts and asked me to compile them into a book. It took 10 years for me to do that, but it was at a time that I needed to, for me. It must be time for me again, as I now have this blog as a newfound platform to share with you all.
In this blog, you will not only read about my thoughts and opinions, but I will also share with you the many events and activities that we offer! You will find pictures of our students, see evaluation and survey results, and find ways you too can be involved.
As always, I appreciate any feedback about the coalition, its purpose and mission, and what we can do to continue to advance the goal of substance use/abuse prevention - and keep our kids healthy and alive! Please use the “Contact Us” page on this website, to share all of your ideas and opinions. I welcome them all - the good, as well as the not-so-good!
Thank you all for helping me navigate my own personal grief all these years, and for supporting our new and forever ultimate goal - helping all of our youth to be drug/alcohol-free, and able to live a long, healthy and productive life!
Journaling
When Michael was in the hospital, I started keeping in touch with everyone back home through CaringBridge. As a form of personal grief counseling, I continued journaling for over a year after Michael died. When I stopped doing it on that site, publicly, a dear friend presented me with a printed copy of each of my posts, and encouraged me to compile them all into a book.
It took me ten years to get to a place where I felt I could do this, but in 2016 it came to fruition. “It” is my book, “From High School to Heaven.” Every once in a while I pick up the book, and reflect on what I wrote, how I was feeling, what I was thinking, on random days during that first year after Michael’s death. My plan is to share some of those entries here in this blog from time to time. But I also don’t want this website, or this blog, to focus only on the tragedy and sadness that brought us here, but to also show the work that we do, and the impact it has made in our community, and beyond.
Changing behaviors and social “norms” can take a long time, and can be tedious and sometimes feel unreachable. But even small, seemingly unsignificant changes to one person, can be a most positive life-changing impact on someone else. Those positive changes are happening here, and can happen everywhere! One small change, has the potential to be the difference between life and death. So.. is it worth it? Speaking as a mother who lost a child to such a preventable death… absolutely!! Join me here, as we talk about it; as we share; as we learn and grow; as we Make Good Memories in our communities.