New Community Effort Focuses on Thanksgiving Eve – by Paul Grzella general manager and editor of the Courier News, Home News Tribune & MyCentralJersey.com

A t a recent meeting of EmPoWER Somerset, I was surprised to learn that Thanksgiving Eve – and not New Year’s Eve – ranks first in the number of drunk-driving offenses. According to authorities and experts, it is also the most popular night for underage drinking.

This recognition, combined with the belief that drunken-driving related tragedies are 100 percent preventable, is the driving force behind a new local collaborative effort being launched this Thanksgiving.

Somerset’s Initiative for Partying Safely, coordinated by EmPoWER Somerset, has joined forces with Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano, Somerset County Sherriff Frank J. Provenzano, and the Somerset County Association of Chiefs of Police to make this Thanksgiving a safer holiday for everyone on the road.

At least 19 police departments, including the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office and Somerset County Sherriff’s Office, are participating in this collaborative effort with the help of dedicated resources from EmPoWER Somerset.

Increased law enforcement efforts on Thanksgiving Eve will include:

-DWI checkpoints in Hillsborough, Bridgewater and North Plainfield
-”Cops in Shops,” in which plain-clothes officers work in liquor establishments to catch underage youths trying to buy alcohol
-Additional police patrols throughout Somerset County.

And I am proud to write that the Courier News, Home Tribune and MyCentralJersey.com are part of this effort. We are publishing a series of opinion pieces by four Somerset County police chiefs about why this campaign is so crucial, and will be writing about it in our news pages, reminding people that the effort is coming up and try to illuminate how this trend has evolved and why.

At a follow-up meeting I had with EmPoWER Somerset staff and North Plainfield Police Chief William Parenti, one of the ideas the chief left me with is how this effort is about prevention. It’s not designed to be punitive.

But it is designed to build awareness, among young adults and their parents, about a problem that is real, the consequences that can result from some bad decisions, and the actions that can be taken to have more positive outcomes.

So, during the next 10 days staff members like me and other community members will write about this repeatedly in our news pages and on our website. We are dedicating these resources to this effort simply because we should. I believe that we all, as neighbors and responsible citizens, have a duty toward one another to make society better and safer for one another.

Sometimes, the newspapers cover the story. Sometimes, we participate in it as part of our community-service responsibilities.  I hope you will take your responsibility seriously, too, and have a safe Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving Day.

Paul C. Grzella is general manager and editor of the Courier News, the Home News Tribune and MyCentralJersey.com. E-mail him at moc.yesreJlartneCyM@allezrgp, or call him at 908-243-6601 or 732-565-7215.