Visiting Montcalm for media workshop

I am traveling to Montcalm County Community College on Friday for another media workshop, provided the weather does not go haywire between this afternoon and 5:30 a.m.

I don't ever remember visiting Montcalm before, but I believe I must have driven through it on my way to somewhere else over the years. I did a little background checking on the county via the Internet and it looks pretty remote, pretty rural, much like the area where my home is in Huron County.

This should be a very interesting workshop because it sounds like we'll have a fairly large group attending. They're bringing with them some ideas for letters to the editor and forum submissions. Those are always a challenge because it's tough to strike a balance between being informative and interesting.

I will be traveling with friends Jill and Kari, which will make the two-hour drive bearable. They are very bright and lively and highly motivated. I give them credit because they are so committed to their cause, doing everything within their power to help slow down underage drinking.

Just the other night, I received another unsolicited complaint about the severity of underage drinking. While getting ready for my presentation to the Huron County Historical Society, a prominent member of the community told me about how a good family friend recently was trying to deal with an accident that resulted from an underage drinking session.

While staggering around, the young man fell 20 feet and landed on his head, resulting in a serious head injury. The family is devastated, still waiting to find out how bad and how long-term the damage is. Very sad. Tragedy as Christmas and New Year's approach.

The man also went on to complain about how shocked he was at the amount of underage drinking he witnessed just before a recent MSU football game. "Parking lots around campus were filled with kids drinking to excess, and of course no one from the college or the police were doing anything to slow it down. You have to figure that some of those kids are going to get hurt - that's simply what happens when you have too many kids with too much alcohol."

I'm sure this will be part of workshop on Friday.