By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

If you’re headed to a local convenience or grocery store Saturday to stock up on beer for Super Bowl Sunday, take a second to read the big yellow sticker high school students placeded on it.

Did you know providing alcohol to minors is a Class D crime that can set you back in fines of up to $1,500 and a year in jail? It becomes a felony with a minimum of three years incarceration if an accident involving the furnished alcohol results in serious bodily injury or death — a “shocking fact” most people don’t realize, Kennebunk Police Chief Bob MacKenzie said. 

“Peer Helpers,” a group of 25 Kennebunk High School students who help bridge the gap between students and educators, will canvas eight local stores Saturday morning with Kennebunk School Resource Officer Mark Carney and local Rotarians placing “big yellow stickers” with more “shocking facts” on alcoholic beverages through out the store. 

The stickers are part of “Project Sticker Shock,” a statewide program sponsored by the Maine Office of Substance Abuse with funding from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Kennebunk High School senior D.J. Stockbridge said he hopes the stickers help start a discussion between parents and children, as well as making those of legal age to purchase alcohol to think twice before purchasing for a minor. 

“It gets the whole community involved and puts it out there to people that they are accountable if the buy for or let minors indulge on their property,” Stockbridge said. 

Led by teachers Jen Frizzell and Amy Roy, the Peer Helpers have identified an issue with underage drinking in their school, especially during school dances, Stockbridge said.

Even though this event is scheduled one week after Kennebunk High School’s annual Snow Ball, sophomore Molly Centore hopes Project Sticker Shock will remind people it’s not healthy for teenagers to drink alcohol.

“When you start drinking at the age of 15, studies have show you are four times more likely to become dependent on alcohol,” Stockbridge said.

“It becomes a physical dependency,” Frizzell said. 

“Kids don’t know this, they just think it’s fun to drink and have a good time,” Centore said. 

“Project Sticker Shock” not only raises awareness and educates the community, but it provides interaction between youth, Rotarians and the police department, MacKenzie said. 

“There’s no doubt there is a problem in our community. [Under age drinking] is a problem in every community. We know it is an issue and this is one of many steps to address it,” MacKenzie said. 

Along with working with  students on this project, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport police departments have each received $7,000 grants from Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition to prevent underage substance abuse and are patrol for parties or underage sales, educate the community and train officers on this specific issue. 

“Purchasing for minors certainly does occur, and I don’t think they think of the big picture of what can happen,” MacKenzie said. 

“Hopefully the stickers will make people rethink what they are doing,” Stockbridge said. 

If anything, the Peer Helpers hope the “sticker shock” will at least start conversations between parents and their children. 

According to a survey, 20 percent of Maine students between eighth and 12^th grade admitted to binge drinking in the prior month, but only one percent of parents suspected them of doing so, Frizzell said.