High school football fans to see substance abuse messages on field
A nationally known addiction treatment organization hopes to get the attention of Lake County high school football fans with messages designed to spark conversations between students and parents.
Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation will have signs with messages related to substance abuse prevention in the end zones of the refurbished Lake Zurich High School football stadium this coming season.
Lake Zurich Unit District 95 board members last week approved an agreement with Home Team Marketing to install Hazelden Betty Ford's two signs in return for $1,000.
Lake Zurich High will be part of Hazelden Betty Ford's new campaign targeting teenagers and their parents in the Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota markets. Hazelden Betty Ford messages will be at several high schools in each area, marketing director Lisa Stangl said.
"Our messages will be brief, prevention-oriented messages to engage both the parents and students attending the football games," Stangl said. "The messages will be positive and encourage conversation. The messages will only include our logo."
District 95 school board President Doug Goldberg said officials have previously allowed organizations to provide positive messages using end-zone billboards.
"Substance abuse is an ongoing concern," Goldberg said Wednesday. "The Hazelden Betty Ford organization is a not-for-profit whose mission is to educate people about the problems of addiction and the promise of recovery."
Ramsen Kasha, executive director of Hazelden Betty Ford's Chicago treatment facility, said young adults are frequently exposed to messages promoting alcohol use, particularly on television sports programming.
In a piece Kasha wrote for the Daily Herald in April, timed with the end of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, he cited the most recent, 2012 Illinois Youth Survey that found about 30 percent of high school seniors admitting they partook in binge drinking.
"We want to make sure we're getting a more positive and healthy message out there," Kasha said.
Annual U.S. drug overdose deaths have been growing for about 20 years, according to a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report issued in 2014. Heroin overdose deaths went from 1,779 to 3,665 in 28 states that were studied from 2010 to 2012, the CDC said.
Three years ago, Lake Zurich's Lindsey Dulian and four other women were concerned enough about the easy availability of heroin and other drugs in the suburbs that they formed Take A Stand, a nonprofit organization.
Stangl said the goal of Hazelden Betty Ford having a presence in high school football stadiums is to encourage conversation, heighten awareness of a growing issue among teens and young adults, and break down barriers so more individuals, families and communities can find help, hope and healing.
"With that as our goal," she said, "we will deem the campaign effective if we are able to help foster the conversation to prevent more teens from experiencing the negative and often times lifelong impact of substance use."
Hazelden Foundation and the Betty Ford Center merged last year and became the country's largest nonprofit addiction treatment organization.