Put on your beat-up running shoes, fill up your water bottle and prepare to hit the road this autumn for the Isle of Palms’ 7th annual walk/run fundraiser to benefit Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). event, known as Move With MADD Lowcountry, will be held Oct. 25 at Hampton Park in downtown Charleston.
“Every dollar supports MADD’s efforts here in South Carolina to support victims and survivors and to educate the community about the dangers of DUI,” said Steven Burritt, regional executive director with the MADD state office in Irmo near Columbia. “Especially in an era of shrinking grant funding, those who support MADD through our fundraisers help us ensure every victim that needs us will have a passionate advocate supporting them.”
The local fundraiser began in 2019, when IOPPD Sgt. Sharon Baldrick initiated the agency’s participation.
All participants who register by Oct. 1 will be guaranteed a T-shirt. All remaining shirts will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Medals will be awarded to those who place in the 5K run.
Since its launch in 1980, MADD has sponsored a variety of fundraisers for victims of drunk drivers such as cycling races and fishing and golf tournaments.
The impetus for its creation was 13-year-old softball player Cari Lightner, who was killed May 3, 1980, in Fair Oaks, California, when she was struck from behind by a three-time repeat offender, throwing her out of her shoes 125 feet as she and a friend were walking to a church carnival. This incident led to the formation of MADD by Cari’s mother, Candace Lightner, whose daughter continues to represent the many pedestrian victims killed or injured due to drunk driving.
At the time, nearly 25,000 people were killed each year in alcohol-related crashes – 50% of all traffic deaths in 1980. In the past 45 years, Burritt said that MADD volunteers across the U.S. have not only made a difference in the lives of individual victims such as Cari but have helped cut drunk driving deaths by 40%. “At one point we had reduced deaths by 50%, but the incredible spike in drunk driving deaths seen starting with the pandemic erased some of those gains,” Burritt said.
Burritt also pointed out that despite the gains, there is still a long way to go in South Carolina because “we have the worst drunk driving fatality rate per capita in the nation.”
“Any family impacted is still devastated beyond comprehension and they need all the support we can provide,” Burritt said. “Our work and our mission is as important today as it’s ever been, especially as we now see the reality of technology bringing an end to drunk driving – we have to advocate all the way to victory.”
By L. C. Leach III
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