Cape May County’s 24th Annual ‘We Check for 21’ Program Is Underway

COURT HOUSE — The We Check for 21 Program officially started in Cape May County June 16 with three training and information sessions hosted by Freeholder Kristine Gabor and the Board of Chosen Freeholders at The Wildwoods Convention Center.
This year marks the 24th anniversary of the program that originated in Cape May County in 1993 and has since been implemented statewide. The initiative that coined the slogan “If you’re too young to buy don’t even try” originally had forty businesses involved now 20 years later over 700 hundred staff participate in the kick-off event.
The We Check for 21 kick off program featured a Fake Identification Training Session by Joseph Vasil, Identity Document Specialist; and a report on the Memorial Day Weekend Turn-Away program. Additionally, NJ State Parole Board Chairman, James Plousis, who started the program in Cape May County 24 years ago when he was Sheriff, was a guest speaker.
For the fifteenth straight year, during Memorial Day weekend, a Card & Count Turn Away initiative was conducted. Under this initiative, twenty-one liquor store licensees documented and reported the total number of underage persons who were refused the purchase of alcohol.
This year the data indicates that a total of 256 individuals were refused the sale of alcoholic beverages based on their failure to prove that they were at least 21 years of age. From 2002 through 2016, a total of 5,254 youth were refused a sale.
Freeholder Gabor said, “The turn away count is even more significant if you assume that each turn away had 2 friends that would have drank with him/her. The number would then triple to 15,762 kids in the past fifteen years who were declined access to alcohol of the Memorial Day weekend. In my view, these numbers are staggering and genuinely reflect the success and impact this campaign has made.”
The We Check for 21 program is a unique collaborative effort bringing together the public and private sectors of our county in the fight against underage drinking. The program has been successful in raising awareness that underage drinking is not tolerated in Cape May County.
The We Check for 21 campaign educates persons 16-20 years old about underage drinking. Underage drinking is punishable by a fine of no less than $500 and loss of driver’s license for a minimum of 6 months. Freeholder Gabor added, “A promotional campaign which includes road signs, flyers and radio and television commercials is conducted to spread the word about We Check for 21 in Cape May County.”
The Program is sponsored by the Cape May County Municipal Alliances for the Prevention of Substance Abuse in cooperation with the Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders and funded by a grant from the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Others involved in this effort include Cape Assist and a grant from New Jersey Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Harrison Beverage, the Cape May County Licensed Beverage Association, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office and the Cape May County Chiefs of Police Association.