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Thursday, December 18, 2008

DWI Memorial Needs Help To Stay Open

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
          Sonja Britton will not give up her dream of opening a memorial to raise awareness of DWI.
        The first employee hired by the Memorial of Perpetual Tears just quit, and Britton said the doors can't stay open without someone behind the desk.
        "For personal reasons she had to resign so now we are without staff. We need volunteers so we can keep the memorial open daily," Britton said.
        Although Britton said the city will advertise for another administrator, she plans to post her phone number out front for people who may arrive to a locked door. The administrator functions include fundraising, grant writing and working at the visitor's center as a general manager.
        The memorial has had about 80 visitors since their grand opening ceremony on Oct. 11.
        Inside the visitor's center a tall brightly lit Christmas tree stands beside a bookshelf with photographs of victims. On the tree hang ribbons tied on tears rather than ornaments. The names of victims are printed on the ribbons. Underneath the tree are wrapped boxes addressed to victims of DWI-related crashes.
        "If they were here, they would be getting gifts," Britton said.
        As the founder of the memorial walked around the sunny, modern space, she talked about how far her dream to build a memorial has come since 1991 when she lost her son to a drunken driver.
        Phase I is completed. Phase II which includes the visitor's center, partial landscaping and a parking area is almost funded and nearly complete. Phase III which includes completion of the landscaping, memorial walls, sidewalks, lighting and a national memorial with DWI information from each state is proposed and planned.
        Britton sent a color informational booklet about the memorial to the governor of each state requesting $30,000 to complete Phase III. The estimated cost to complete Phase III is $1.5 million. She received one positive reply and three negative replies.
        Britton stopped at a guest registration table and ran her hand over the pages of a notebook with photographs and short biographies of victims.
        "There will be books like this for every state," Britton said.
        For a victim's photograph to be at the visitor's center the family must give its permission.
        Britton smiled as she pointed at jewelry that hangs in glass-fronted cases with proceeds to benefit the memorial.
        "I design each piece around the pendant," she said.
        There are chairs, bookcases and tables all designed with falling tears and built by prisoners from the Corrections Industries Division of the New Mexico Corrections Department.
        Britton met some of the prisoners who were building the furniture.
        "It was very rewarding for me because they responded very positively for getting to do this job," Britton said.
        One prisoner visited the memorial and walked over to an information board in the back of the room, she said. He stood reading statistics about accidents and fatalities compiled by the Torrance County DWI Program.
        Britton said she walked over to him and asked what he thought.
        "He said I think this is very sad. I'm not going to do this anymore. I hope it was the truth. I hope it was," Britton said.
        There were 83,849 victims of DWI nationwide from 2002 to 2006. There were 849 victims of DWI in New Mexico from 2003 to 2007. In 2006, 58 percent of alcohol-related traffic fatalities involved drivers with a blood alcohol concentration of .15 or higher. The legal limit in all states was 0.08.
        To complete the memorial Britton intends on asking state legislators for more money.
        "I'm just going to make a list," Britton said.
        Included on that list will be buying another acre of land, paving the parking area, landscaping the front area, a storage building and signs on Interstate 40. And it won't include building the national part.
        For information about the memorial or for a tour call 832-4614 or 832-4495.