Municipal Alliance To Seek More Anti-Drinking Education for Project Graduation

Changing parents’ tolerance for underage drinking. That is one of the Lacey Township Municipal Alliance’s goals in its support of the high school’s Project Graduation, the adult-supervised, alcohol-free post-graduation party.

Municipal Alliance Coordinator Heather Scanlon was one of the chaperones at this year’s Project Graduation, a dinner cruise for 171 of the graduates aboard the Cornucopia Princess from Perth Amboy to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge on June 17.

“There were no problems this year; the kids were well behaved,” said Scanlon. “They all had a good time and were busy the whole night with dancing and games.”

The Alliance funded the disc jockey and various other activities, such as Guitar Hero, Dance Revolution, ping-pong, air hockey, computerized portraits and a temporary tattoo artist. Scanlon said they are authorized to spend up to $4,800 on Project Graduation from a Drug Enforcement Demand Reduction (DEDR) grant.

However, she said they are in danger of losing that funding unless they can show they have an ongoing program with tangible results. She said they plan to work more with the high school Parent Teacher Student Association and school administrators to see what they can do to change parents’ attitudes about underage drinking.

“They see it as a right of passage or it’s okay to drink in the home and take children’s car keys, but it’s illegal,” said Scanlon. “A lot of people don’t know that.”

A change this year was the more active involvement in Project Graduation by high school principal Will Zylinski, who attended this year’s event, along with 13 chaperones.

“We want to thank the school for all its support and working together -- that’s paramount to keeping our children and community safe,” said Township Committeeman David Most. “We want to thank the school board and the principal for taking ownership of the event.”