A few days ago, one of the students that I work with at the tutoring center asked me to go a dinner with her. She said her friend had given her two free tickets and wondered if I would like to enjoy a nice free Italian dinner. Baffled that no one else had taken her up on that offer, I said sure, thinking free food is great and now this is even Italian free food. So I agreed to meet her at 6 in the campus center.
Standing outside, I realized it was supposed to be a relatively dressed up event. Given that I had just found out about the dinner a few hours earlier and I was a commuter and didn’t have a chance to go home and change, I forgave myself for my lack of looking formal and instead showing up in jeans. Then I realized, it wasn’t just any dinner. It was a dinner for the HERO campaign. I had seen the Be a Hero stickers a few places around campus but I had never really given them much thought. There was a good crowd there. Then people started talking about the campaign and how it is about promoting having designated drivers in order to prevent car accidents and reduce death because of that. The founders had lost their son because a drunk driver had hit him when he was on his way home for his mother’s birthday.
It was an important cause, and the dinner was there to honors students that had worked hard to be a hero and to do the most in order to help their friends stay safe after parties or any events when they were having a good time. The founders emphasized that they were not there to discourage us about having a good time, but rather there to encourage us to make good decisions and plans in order to stay safe while having a good time.
The food of course was wonderful. Three different types of pasta and really good bread and some meatballs and some great salad. Overall, I was grateful I went and learned about this campaign and I hope they can grow and raise awareness at more campuses like they said they were planning on doing so.