, you would think we are a normal, average American family. For the most part we are. I’m the EAST facilitator and business teacher at Rose Bud High School. I’ve been married to my amazing husband and best friend, Chris, for 21 years, and we have three boys—Brandon is 19, Justin is 15, and Scott Allan is 10. Brandon is in college at ASU-Beebe and stays busy with his school work, Justin is in the 9th grade and LOVES football, and Scott Allan is in the 4th grade and keeps us all on our toes with his “Dennis the Menace” antics! We are members of the Romance Church of Christ congregation, and are very active with our church family. Sounds normal, doesn’t it? Well, what if I added the fact that Chris is an alcoholic? (Some reading this article probably just cringed!) Almost 10 years ago, Chris was working on his family’s farm in south Arkansas. They had just finished harvesting rice and were getting ready to cut beans. Chris was cleaning out a grain cart when his brother accidentally engaged the auger, amputating Chris’s arm just above the elbow. Brandon and Justin were both right beside Chris when the accident happened. I still can’t imagine how scared my babies must have been. Chris had recently been diagnosed as a diabetic, controlling it with diet and exercise. The trauma of the accident, however, shocked his body into insulin dependency. He kind of had two whammies at once! This was such a life-changing experience for all of us. Family, friends, and our wonderful McGehee church family were very supportive, and everyone kept telling us how great we were handling things…or so they thought. Somewhere along the way, Chris turned to alcohol. He was almost instantly addicted. He never intended to become an alcoholic, but what alcoholic ever did? We were not drinkers, not even socially. Neither were his parents. The loss of his arm, the diabetes, and now alcoholism…it was a tough pill for us to swallow. Trying to make a fresh start and thinking life would be better, we left our south Arkansas home and headed north to Hammonsville (between El Paso and Romance). We built a house on my family’s farm and I got a teaching job in Rose Bud. About two years after we moved, Chris, for whatever reason, couldn’t take any more and finally reached for help. In his words, “Addiction will take you to the darkest place in your soul that can’t even be described. Any addict trying to recover will tell you it’s worse than any horror movie ever made, except it doesn’t last 1 ½ hours: it’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I was sick of being sick.” He spent almost three months at the Wilbur D. Mills Treatment Center in Searcy. It was so hard for all of us to be apart, but we knew it was the right thing. The boys and I will never forget the day he came home; it was like we had gotten our life back! After my first year of teaching at Rose Bud, the school started an EAST program and I became the facilitator. That year, an amazing lady by the name of Pat Hambrick came to visit me at school. She introduced me and my students to this thing called WISE. EAST is a service-learning-type class, and WISE seemed to be a great opportunity for my students to work with the community. But the more I learned about WISE and its mission to prevent underage drinking, the more I realized that it wasn’t just a community partner, it was also a much needed blessing for me and my family.
Nationwide, alcoholrelated accidents are the leading cause of death among young people 15 to 24 years of age and alcohol kills more young people than all other drugs combined. Alcohol is a factor in 2/3 of all date rapes.
I’ve always been a protective Moma…just ask my kids! But, after Chris became an alcoholic, my protective instincts kicked into over drive. I have been determined to do whatever I could to ensure my kids wouldn’t have to go through the struggle of alcoholism like their daddy has had to. I made sure they were in church every time the doors were open, they attended Al-Ateen meetings, and now I had WISE. Brandon was one of my EAST students and worked with WISE as his community partner. He created and filmed a drinking and driving video, recorded PSAs for the coalition, hosted a school assembly on the dangers of underage drinking, and worked as a volunteer whenever needed. Justin wasn’t old enough to be in EAST yet, but he was guilty by association (his Moma is the facilitator) and so he tagged along to every WISE meeting Brandon and I attended and that’s how he became involved. The two of them were asked by the coalition to attend CADCA’s National Youth Leadership Conference in St. Louis, where they learned how to develop underage drinking prevention programs in their school. Justin was also invited to attend the conference again the next year, and I was asked to serve on the WISE Board of Directors. Chris also serves as a volunteer. His favorite is working the WISE booth at the White County Fair. You might have seen him…he was the guy with one arm, enticing visitors to our booth with popcorn. Once the popcorn got their attention, he would tell them all about WISE. If they didn’t want popcorn, he would just jump out in the isle and tell them about it anyway! And Scott Allan, even at his age, has volunteered at different events, such as our Larry’s Pizza fundraiser where he stood by the road and held our “Help WISE” posters. After all, who could resist that cute face? According to the CDC, 21.1% of students drink alcohol (other than a few sips) for the first time before the age of 13. People who begin drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop a serious alcohol problem later in life than those who wait until they are 21. They have also identified a number of other risk factors for serious alcohol problems, most of which have to do with a young person’s environment. Young people who have strong relationships with their parents are less likely to have serious alcohol problems than those who don’t. Poor parenting skills and parental problems with alcohol or other drug use SearcyLiving.com 55