Lifesaving program born in Maine

LEWISTON – Between 1980 and 1984, alcohol-related car crashes took 15 teenagers’ lives during “graduation season” – mid-May to mid-June – in Maine.

But the ’80s ended with three consecutive years of no fatalities during the period in which graduating seniors let loose to celebrate.

Officials credit Project Graduation, a program born out of tragedy in Maine, for the decrease. The idea has since spread to nearly half of the states.

Steve Galway, assistant principal of Edward Little High School, points to the Auburn school as proof that Project Graduation works.

Edward Little has held Project Graduation for 24 years, and for just as long has avoided the heartbreak of an end-of-year alcohol-related crash fatality.

“I’m just so glad Oxford Hills founded it,” said Galway. “It’s the right thing to do.”

The idea was put into practice after a series of fatalities – one involving five teenagers from Telstar High School in Locke Mills – in the late spring of 1979. The local community decided to take action.

Oxford Hills High School started Project Graduation in time for the Class of 1980 to have an all-night, dry, supervised celebration after diplomas were handed out. No one from school was charged with operating under the influence that spring, and there were no fatal crashes.

The next year, Edward Little High started its Project Graduation, and Lewiston High started one the next year. Soon, three of every four schools in Maine were on board.

Since then, 20 states and four Canadian provinces sought to duplicate Oxford Hills’ success, which has been recognized by the federal government. The Department of Health and Human Services in 1983 held it up as one of eight model projects nationally for youth.

The initial fervor has faded some while spending on school-based drug and alcohol services has dropped, but thousands of Maine high schoolers still have a safe alternative on graduation night.

Sue Bell, who was an aide to former Gov. Angus King and helped start Project Graduation at Oxford Hills, recalls the community’s commitment not to let a tragedy such as the one that killed five students happen again.

Students were skeptical at first, but eventually adjusted to an idea that was being pushed by parents and community leaders.

“There’s no question that some of the kids at Project Graduation would have been somewhere where there was alcohol,” said Brewster Burns, now an English teacher at Oxford Hills who graduated that year.