By Asta Hemenway
Cat Lessard is a second year student here at Tallahassee Community College. She is a member of the Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement (SLICE) office and President of Art club. This interview took place Wednesday, Oct. 31. during TCC’s Halloween Bash and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) events both located in the Ballroom.
Talon: “Is this your first year here at TCC?”
Cat: “No, I did dual enrollment here at TCC in high school, so this is my second year here.”
Talon: “Why do you feel [MADD] is significant?”
Cat: “Well Halloween, especially in college towns, is really big. It’s essentially an excuse to go out and drink on a Wednesday or a Tuesday, or whatever day of the week it falls on. So Art club, which I’m president of, is doing an event for MADD, and statistically the number of accidents because of drunk driving are higher on holidays like, Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day, another big excuse to drink. So, we’re trying to ram right into that and have students realize they need to designate a driver who will not be drinking at all.”
Talon: “What is interesting to you about this event? What do you enjoy?”
Cat: “Well, I like to color, and we’re coloring, so that’s fun. And you know, if you ever want costumes to show up somewhere, free food is very compelling! And they have like little games set out, we have like Jenga, and giant Uno, which is way more fun than regular Uno, ’cause it’s easier to see other people’s cards ’cause they’re so big. And we have giant Connect Four, we have horror movies playing, so that appeals to students too. It’s fun! This is my first year with this event, but it’s been going on for a little while.”
Talon: “How do you feel this will raise awareness to drunk driving?”
Cat: “Well, usually when you sit through a drunk driving lecture they try to scare you. And anyway, I feel like this is a much more fun way to introduce it, but also not through the gruesome facts, because I feel like that also scares students as well. So you have to be gentle about how you introduce the facts and then make it, not fun, but interesting enough so that they also wanna like sit and listen to you to talk.”
