Mocktails served by SADD members at junior class ring ceremony

SMITHFIELD - Smithfield High School's Students Against Destructive Decisions group mixed and served "mocktails" for the guests attending the junior class ring ceremony that took place in the high school cafeteria from 6-8 p.m. on Oct. 15. Approximately 150 juniors, parents, faculty and staff attended the ceremony which included food, mocktails, a presentation of class rings and gift bags for junior class attendees.

Junior Class Council and SADD members Kiley Fair, Karyn Spaulding and Alyssa Bazinet encouraged their class advisers, Kelley Young (Social Studies Department) and Shelley Hopkins (Math Department) to collaborate with SADD to bring a festive, non-alcoholic drink to the event. All three girls were among the 12 Smithfield High School students who attended a summer leadership conference put on by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers that helped introduce them to the concept of mocktails. In addition to discouraging underage drinking and unsafe driving practices, the conference encourages high school students to create delicious non-alcoholic beverages to serve at social events.

Mocktails created by SADD groups typically commemorate victims of drunk driving crashes and are later entered in MADD's annual mocktail competitions, however this drink was created specifically for this year's junior class.

Favorite beverages of Smithfield High School students include soda and fruit juice, so the newly coined "Sentinel Splash" consists of a simple mixture of Sprite, grenadine and a maraschino cherry. SADD members who mixed and served the drinks for their 11th-grade classmates included seniors Janelle Roberts and Kevin Riley, sophomores Justin Palazzo, Matt Carroll, Ashley Galvao, and Stacey Tudino and freshman Sophie England.

SADD has approximately 30 members, 12 of whom participated in MADD's summer leadership conference at Bryant University. They include Kiley Fair, Alyssa Bazinet, Karyn Spaulding, Nick Stoddard, Austin LaRiviere, Gabby DeSimone, Alicia Rodgrigues, Caitlin Murphy, Justin Palazzo, Alessandro Solda, Matt Carroll and Conor Judge.

Members of SADD will decide later in the year if they will use the ingredients of the Sentinel Splash to commemorate the life of Chuck Ehler, a Scituate resident and 19-year-old victim of a drunk driving fatality in 2003, or if they will create a different drink to honor him and use as their spring MADD mocktail for their competition entry.