Norfolk DA Looking for a HERO (to be a Designated Driver)
By Grahame Turner
Wellesley Patch
The Norfolk County District Attorney is making the rounds, asking town licensing boards to encourage participation in a Jersey Shore designated driver program.
Being the designated driver can make you a hero, according to a New Jersey-based campaign that is making its way around Norfolk County.
Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey is speaking to licensing boards around the county about a program called “Be a Hero,” which encourages liquor-serving establishments to encourage designated drivers. He was in Needham last night (which recently voted for sales of alcohol in the town).
The campaign’s goal is “to register one million designated drivers and make having a designated driver be as automatic as wearing a seatbelt.”
According to Morrissey, every establishment in Patriot Place in Foxborough has joined the campaign. A press release from the DA’s office describes how being a hero works: Bar managers or servers will ask groups of patrons “Who is going to be the HERO tonight,” and then offer a BE A HERO wristband and a free soft drink to whoever volunteers to be the designated sober driver.
“One is too many, and we had more than one a week,” Morrissey said in a press release. “We are trying to lower those numbers, both working with those who serve alcohol and joining the Elliotts in their work targeting those who consume it.”
Bill and Muriel Elliot, who founded the Ensign John R. Elliot Human Education Resource Officer (HERO) Campaign for designated drivers, named it after their son, a graduate of the Naval Academy who was struck and killed by a drunken driver on his way home for his mother’s birthday in 2000.
The campaign name comes from an honor John received at Annapolis: he was elected by his peers as a Human Education Resource Officer, or “HERO,” to mentor other cadets. He was also named the outstanding HERO in his graduating class, according to the campaign website.
