Lincoln Academy students inside Main Street Grocery in Damariscotta take part in Project Sticker Shock on Wednesday, Dec. 6. (Photo courtesy Jake Abbott)
Despite the blistering cold Wednesday, Dec. 6, Lincoln Academy students Gwen Weaver, Julia Dietrich, Leah Geminheart, and Clover Dixon gathered outside Main Street Grocery in Damariscotta.
They were soon joined by Lincoln Academy School Resource Officer Mark Fortin, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Rand Maker, and Damariscotta Police Officer, Billy Smith; as well as Dean of Students Jake Abbott and staff from CLC YMCA and Healthy Lincoln County.
Inside the store, they proceeded to cover packages in the beer aisle with hundreds of orange stickers. For the wine bottles they had informational cards they could hang around the neck like a door-hanger. When they were done, they said goodbye to the staff and proceeded to do the same at six more businesses.
The group was taking part in a public health initiative known as Project Sticker Shock. Sticker Shock is an evidence-based program intended to reduce underage access to alcohol. High school students collaborate with law enforcement and other adult volunteers to place informational stickers on packages of alcohol in a retail environment.
The stickers remind adults not to furnish minors with alcohol, and about the health and safety impacts of underage alcohol consumption. Hundreds of these stickers add up on the aisle to amount what’s called an environmental intervention, where the physical environment is tweaked in a subtle way to change how people perceive and think about alcohol.
This adjustment allows the business to show they are doing everything they can to be responsible alcohol sellers and reminds their customers that they take I.D. checking and furnishing rules seriously.
But Sticker Shock is more than just an environmental intervention. It is a vector for youth engagement because it puts the students themselves at the center of a community conversation that is about them. Students are responsible for much of the planning that goes into a Sticker Shock event, including recruiting their peers to participate. That takes real courage in a high school environment.
Lincoln Academy students work with Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Rand Maker during Project Sticker Shock at the Main Street Grocery Wednesday, Dec. 6. (Photo courtesy Jake Abbott)
They then have the opportunity to take part in a real-world, professional public health initiative while collaborating with police, community based organizations, and businesses. It takes the whole village to do it right.
According to recent Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey data, Lincoln County high school students who drink say they were most likely to get their alcohol from an adult who bought it at the store. Furnishing alcohol to minors can seem like a small offense in the moment, but that one decision by an adult can contribute to a car accident or other type of injury.
Even if no short-term consequences arise from it, it supports the young person’s alcohol use at a critical time when their brain is still developing, increasing their chances of developing chronic health problems later in life.
The Dec. 6 event was a huge success as the local Sticker Shock team traveled to a total of seven businesses and marked over 2,500 alcohol products in Damariscotta and Newcastle in less than two hours.
The businesses deserve a huge amount of credit for taking part and allowing the group to take over during a busy part of the day and place warning stickers on one of their most profitable products. This shows how seriously they take their commitment to health and safety of the communities they serve.
Lincoln Academy and Healthy Lincoln County thank Damariscotta Hannaford’s, Maine Street Grocery, Mr. Mike’s Puffin Stop, Hill Top Stop, Walgreen’s, Rising Tide, and Mike’s Place, as well as the Damariscotta Police Department and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office for their generous participation.
