Link to Dragons Video Submission
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- On Feb. 9 hundreds of fans and student-athletes at the Dragon men and women's basketball games sported blue bracelets symbolizing their personal pledges to not drive drunk.
The Student Athlete Advisory Committee set up a booth at the games encouraging Dragon fans to sign pledge cards stating that they won't drive drunk as part of “It's A Slam Dunk — Don't Drive Drunk.” In exchange, fans received blue bracelets in memory of Drake Bigler.
Drake was the five-month old son of Southwest Minnesota's head men's basketball coach Brad Bigler. Drake was killed last July when a drunk driver came into oncoming traffic and collided with the Bigler's car.
“When you hear the story of the Bigler family, its heartbreaking…anything we can do it raise awareness is well worth the effort,” Athletics Director and Advisor for SAAC
Doug Peters said.
Members of SAAC were eager to do their part. “Everyone on SAAC is onboard,” said senior Kevin Huot, SAAC student leader. “Our members are very organized and responsible people on campus who are all willing to volunteer their time to spread awareness.”
Dragon fans did their part as well, as they made sure to take the time to sign personal pledges. Freshman member of SAAC Cara Zastrow says she could tell the experience gave back to the fans. “You can tell by their facial expression they really get something out of it,” Zastrow says.
Coach Bigler and his wife Heather, along with the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, brought the “It's A Slam Dunk — Don't Drive Drunk” event to NSIC basketball schools. The campaign also asked each university's SAAC to create a short video with this theme to assist in raising awareness and prevention. The University of Mary's submission was chosen as the winning video and will be shown at the conference basketball semifinals and championship on March 8-9 in Rochester, Minn.
