Interested in winning $250 for you Peer Education group?  With the BACCHUS Safe Spring Break Snapshot Photo Contest you will be promoting safe habits during spring break as well as helping your group!  So what is there to lose?  To enter is simple!

1. Electronic photo submissions must be made by the BACCHUS Peer Education affiliate on record with the national headquarters.
2. BACCHUS peer education affiliates can submit up to five photos with captions for consideration.
3. Photos must be of the highest clarity and quality (1000 MB) for posting to the BACCHUS website or used in print in the Peer Educator.
4. We are relying on your peer education group to submit photos that exemplify responsibility, safety and fun during Spring Break.  Peer education groups should seek permission in writing from subjects appearing in the submitted photos. 
5. We strongly encourage you to run your own campus-based contest and submit the winning photo(s) to BACCHUS.

Hi everyone!! VCU is ecstatic to host this year's Area 12 Spring Conference in less than a month! We have 175 participants attending so there will be a lot to learn and even more peers to network with than ever before. DO WE HAVE A CONFERENCE FOR YOU! We have an awesome, jam-packed schedule and lots of goodies awaiting you in Richmond. We look forward to greeting you at conference registration between 5-7 pm  on Friday March 28 in the VCU Student Commons, followed by a buffet dinner from 5:30-7:30. Please park in the Main Street parking Deck (directions below), and save your ticket which we will validate at registration.

REMEMBER: We are having a canned food competition to benefit the Central Virginia Food Bank (whose supply has been very low!) Please bring your bags of canned food with you once you park your car in the deck. There will be a room in the VCU Student Commons where you will "register" your cans before registering yourself! Don't know where the VCU Student Commons is located? No worries, VCU Project REACH peers will be nearby to help direct you!

Other reminders: Saturday is Spirit Day and your peer group's chance to win the coveted Spirit Award! We hope to see you all decked out! Also, we will start Saturday morning with yoga/pilates time, or a campus walk so be sure to dress for your choice of activity:)

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns (wattenmakeab@vcu.edu, 804 828-6919) We'll see you in a few weeks at VCU!

Spring Break is just around the corner, or-as we associated with BACCHUS have come to call it-Safe Spring Break.  Safe Spring Break is a campaign, but it is also an idea, one that resonates with a population who increasingly recognizes that not everyone is heading out to a party destination.

     How does your campus promote Safe Spring Break?  Do you pull out pledges that ask students to make a commitment to their safety?  Do you talk about sun safety and travel safety?  Do you reiterate messages about alcohol use and sexual responsibility?  Or, do you simply have discussions about Spring Break plans and being prepared?

     However you spread the idea of Safe Spring Break, formally or informally, you are providing an important service.  You are letting the students know that what they do outside of the gates of their campuses matters just as much as their activities inside:  peer education is not about creating a campus that conforms to such and such ideals, but inspiring the students who populate that campus to be conscientious decision-makers wherever they may go.

     Safe Spring Break also facilitates an understanding about safety:  it is transcendent.  Safety is a component of every activity-we speak not only to those heading to party destinations, but discuss travel safety with those on alternative trips.  Safety does not detract from any activity, but simply provides another element to consider.   In the end, our safe choices allow us to have fun and feel comfortable, when other paths just as easily taken could have lead to the opposite.

     Whether Safe Spring Break or another campaign allows you to show students it is not only what they do or where they do it, but also how they continually make those choices, we wish you luck.  You are teaching that choices have impacts.  You are promoting safety and well-being as de facto aspects of the decision making process.  You are building the leaders of tomorrow.  You are creating students who in turn reach out to other students as they make the little decisions-where to go for Spring Break-and the big decisions-how to plan to stay safe throughout their journeys. 

Parents of children who are prescribed psychostimulants for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might have one less thing to worry about now that a new study concludes these kids are no more likely than their peers to abuse drugs and alcohol as young adults.

      The report, which was funded by the National Institute of Health, is published in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. 

     "The results should reassure clinicians who might be hesitant to treat ADHD because of concerns about future substance abuse," said study co-author Michael C. Monuteaux, assistant director of research at the pediatric psychopharmacology program at Massachusetts General hospital. 

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Couch potatoes who complain they are tired all the time have an easy solution -- a little light exercise.

     Regular, low-intensity workouts such as a leisurely stroll can boost energy levels by 20 percent and decrease fatigue by 65 percent, a team at the University of Georgia found.

     "Too often we believe that a quick workout will leave us worn out, especially when we are already feeling fatigued," Tim Puetz, who helped conduct the study, said in a statement.

     "However, we have shown that regular exercise can actually go a long way in increasing feelings of energy, particularly in sedentary individuals."

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