Spangdahlem host interactive alcohol awareness class

  • Published
  • By Major Nathan Maertens
  • 52nd Aeromedical Dental Squadron
Germany is known for its fast roads and beer. If you're like me, you've enjoyed your fair share of both. However, we've made some mistakes in the past and had far too many instances where we tried to combine the two. Let's change that.

The Culture of Responsibility Success Team will be presenting a class to help address this issue on Sept. 9 at 4 p.m. in the Brickhouse. Instead of this being another stab-your-eye-out powerpoint we will have an informal conversation where we answer questions, dispel myths and teach a method to help determine how many "drinks" you have had. More interestingly, there will be hands on practice.

You read that correctly. We plan on providing drinks so you can practice these concepts.
Our goal is to make this a fun learning environment. As such, we plan on having two groups: those adhering to the wing concept of responsible drinking, no more than four or five drinks in an evening--and their designated drivers.

Throughout the evening there will be a series of challenges to see how the two teams perform. Some of the challenges will include driving simulators, mental puzzles and measuring balance.

To keep everyone safe there will be a few requirements to participate:
1. No driving throughout the entire event so have a DD. We encourage them to attend the class and compete against you.
2. Sign a Hold Harmless agreement saying you understand people sometimes do dumb things while drinking and if that happens, you will not hold it against the Air Force.
3. People will be free to stop drinking whenever they desire; however, we reserve the right to cut anyone off if we suspect a health or safety concern.

While this is for alcohol awareness, we would like to emphasize that our intention is to convey this message in a fun atmosphere. In addition to the drinking activities, we will have food for our class participants and a DJ spinning tunes.

We invite everyone to attend but can only accept 34 volunteers into the official class. As such, we can only accept a small number of particular members from any one organization. So don't wait to volunteer for this through your section's representative. After all, it's not every day we ask you to drink for safety's sake.