Pitt fraternities, sororities raise drunk driving awareness

[kddani]

Pitt fraternities, sororities raise drunk driving awareness
by Jamie Gilliland
For The Pitt News
April 08, 2003

After a long night of studying on Dec. 1, 1999, Gina Cancelliere left the Penn State library and began the long trek back to her off-campus apartment. She never made it there. On the way, Cancelliere was hit by a pickup truck that didn't have its headlights on. She suffered two collapsed lungs, a lacerated liver, damaged optic nerves and fractured her pelvic bone, pubic bone, ribs and tailbone. The driver's blood alcohol content was .17.

While Cancelliere managed to survive, most victims of drunk driving are not so lucky. MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, reported that in 2000, a drunk driver killed someone every half hour. In addition, young drivers are involved in alcohol related crashes more than any other age group.

These kinds of statistics have alarmed more than just a few people on Pitt's campus. Wednesday, 336 Pitt students sported black T-shirts that read "I was killed by a drunk driver" in an effort to not only raise money for MADD, but also raise students' awareness about drunk driving deaths.

The event, led by Josh Butler of Delta Tau Delta, included members of his fraternity, six sororities and a number of independent groups. All last week, they set up tables around the Union and in Litchfield Towers lobby to collect donations from passing students. Their efforts earned MADD just under $200.

But, Butler said, money wasn't the goal.

"I want to stress that this was an awareness thing first, fundraiser second," he said. "The major point was to raise awareness to the alarming statistics, then to give awareness to MADD as well."

Butler said the idea came from fraternity brother Nick Spadodankis in the early fall. When he started researching MADD and saw the statistics, Butler began to push for their house to do it in the spring. Once the other houses got involved, it kept getting bigger and bigger.

From there, members of Delta Tau Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Delta, Chi Omega, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Zeta, Sigma Sigma Sigma and other Greeks and non-Greeks laid down close to $1,000 for the shirts. Still, the shirts may not go to waste since Butler hopes this could become annual event.

Carol Ann Fabbi of Kappa Kappa Gamma has another hope for the event as well.

"I just hope we got the point across that this [drunk driving] happens a lot more than you think and it needs to stop," Fabbi said.
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This was really effective. Even I, who only leaves the law building to come and go, noticed it.

I am thankful that I went to school in a large city where we never had to drive to mixers or parties, so we really never had to worry about drunk driving.