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Idaho students urged to be proactive about alcohol abuse problems

IDAHO -- Two weeks ago two College of Southern Idaho students died in a car accident where police say alcohol abuse was believed to be a factor.

Idaho college and high schools students gathered on the Twin Falls campus Thursday to hear well-known motivational speaker Milton Creagh talk about making a difference in their community and coming together to stop problems like alcohol abuse before they start.

"I hate being here today. I hate being here because of why I'm here today. I hate being here because I'm here because two people lost their lives. I hate being here because sometimes we're reactionary in America and we wait until something happens before we do something about a situation," said Creagh.

Creagh spoke to about 50 students involved in student government from Twin Falls High School, Canyon Ridge High School and the College of Southern Idaho.

Creagh's message is to get students to take a proactive approach to problems like alcohol abuse that they see in their community and schools.

"The reason I wanted to come talk to you guys -- you've got to understand something -- one of the things that we've always known, always said is that young people are the conscience of a society, in other words when there's something wrong, young people ought to be speaking up about it," said Creagh.

Creagh also brainstormed with the students on ideas they can use to begin to use within the community, with the ultimate goal of stopping alcohol-related incidents.

"We need you guys as leaders to speak up and to say something and to do something and come up with some plans on what you can do, how you can be heard," said Creagh.

"As awful as it is that we've had a tragedy like this I think that right now peoples' hearts are vulnerable and they're more open to receiving things like this, and so the tragedy is something we can turn into something beautiful because now people are aware that this is real, and it's real life and it can happen to them," said Sheree Haggan, CSI student body president.

Creagh said he'd like to come back to Twin Falls in the future to see what changes these students have made in their schools and their community.