Well, my travels were a bit daunting, due in large part to finding gray rainy skies upon setting foot outside the airport. However, our arrival at Rosen Shingle Creek hotel here in Orlando was easy breezy. What lovely people. Walking across the hotel to the convention center where the National UDETC Leadership Conference is being held, I realized how much work OJJDP puts into this conference. Wow! It's incredible. Cafe Prevention has a little, lonely station in the exhibit hall across from what appears to be a DJ booth... live stage... karaoke stand... I don't know exactly what it is, but I intend to find out - looks very intriguing, anyway.
Not many were wandering the halls late this afternoon, though I know pre-conference activities have been going on since yesterday. A few were meandering about, admittedly searching for a freebie here and there. I was happy to oblige. It was nice to meet two fellow Missourians battling underage drinking and, no doubt, various other substance abuse issues there on the home front. I also chat a bit with some law enforcement representatives - newbies to the conference - from beautiful Wyoming (sigh - no, I've never been) as well as Wisconsin and South Carolina folk.
I'm looking forward to networking a bit more and hopefully getting some positive responses to our informative and creative prevention materials. We've got plenty Alcohol Poisoning Cards, so I'll be handing those out like candy. I also put together some sample packets strictly related to underage drinking prevention. However, we have some of our prevention products that deal with other drugs like marijuana, spit tobacco, and over-the-counter and prescription drugs for those who are interested.
If you're here, come by and say hello. While you're there, I'd love to show you samples of our new sports series of posters that were created just in time for back to school. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Oh, did I happen to mention we're running a big SALE right now??? You must peruse our website and see all that you can save on our prevention posters and postcards.
Your partner in prevention,
Melvy
Artistic Guru for Cafe Prevention