Team Stuef Triumphs at Tour de 'Stang

Example's March event was the Tour de 'Stang. The night's guest speaker was Betsy Andreu. Betsy's husband is former professional cyclist Frankie Andreu who was captain of the U.S. Postal Service professional cycling team that won the Tour de France was Lance Armstrong's teammate.

Betsy Andreu spoke about the attacks on her character that came after she learned Armstrong took performance enhancing drugs. She encouraged students to not succumb to the temptation of taking recreational or performance-enhancing drugs. She said the money might be nice but the consequences of rotting your soul and endangering your health are certainly not worth it. She also encouraged students to remain fixed to the truth no matter how insurmountable or formidable the pressure may seem. 

With Betsy Andreu as our speaker it only made sense that we had a cycling-themed activity.  Blind-man cycling required endurance, trusted teammates, the ability to know right from left and a desire to win.  In other words it was exactly like the Tour de France... but different.

Navigting the Alpe d'MusicRoom required superior climbing skills and trustworthy teammates.

 Each team selected a cyclist and promptly wrapped paper towels around around his/her head.  The domestiques took turns yelling out directions to the blind cyclist over the meandering course through the school's hallways. 

Superior navigational skills allowed Team Stuef to stand atop the podium.
Tour de 'Stang Champs!

Some party

I just read this mother's story about how her daughter nearly died because of some terribly bad decisions.  Example encourages you to read the story and realize consequences like these can be avoided.

Attention Parents:

This is what 2 beers, 2 shots of Captain Morgan, 2 shots of apple pie moonshine, 2 shots of whiskey, and a handful of liquor soaked blueberries looks like on a 16 year old.

My daughter and her cousin decided to throw themselves a party last night while they were home alone for 2 hours at their dads' house. They raided the liquor cabinet and when my ex husband got home he found the girls drunk and our daughter unresponsive. He rushed her to the hospital in Wyoming, and Court and I met him there.

When I arrived I was rushed into the ER and there was my child, lying on a gurney. She was covered in heated blankets to combat hyperthermia - her body temperature was 95 degrees. She was being pumped full of iv fluids. One of the tubes in her throat was running into her stomach continously draining the fluid therein.

It took the ER team 3 attempts to intubate Taylor, they tore her throat up in the process. It was necessary - so she could be attached to the ventilator which spent the next 13 hours breathing for her, because she wasn't able to breathe on her own.

She was rushed by ambulance to U of M Amplatz Children's Hospital around midnight.

My daughter's symptoms were caused by her blood alcohol level reaching it's plateau at .43.

More than 5 times the legal limit.

High enough to kill a grown man.

The Doctors at Amplatz made it very clear to us that had her father had not found our child when he did, she would have undoubtedly died in that house last night.

We, by the Grace Of God alone, will not be burying our child this week. But only because we are extremely blessed. And extremely lucky.

Some party.

I hope my daughter and my niece understand how fortunate they both are. I hope they learned a valuable lesson in this. And I hope this experience shared can help prevent another child losing her life to alcohol.

Parents: 2 hours. They were only alone for 2 hours.

Kids: 2 beers and 6 shots is all it took to almost kill this girl.

Please share this. Help raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol poisoning and teenage binge drinking.  

I never thought I could find us in a situation like this.

Neither did Taylor.

Maybe we should have.