Northern Quest Casino Pledges Support To Hero Campaign For Designated Drivers®

SPOKANE, Wa. (Aug. 11) – Northern Quest Casino, which recently began serving alcoholic beverages on its casino floor, has become a supporter of the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers®, casino officials announced today.

The HERO Campaign was officially established in October, 2000. The non-profit organization promotes the use of sober designated drivers to prevent drunken driving tragedies throughout our country.
“When your marketing slogan is ‘Where the Fun Never Ends,’ you take every effort to educate, emphasize, and promote safe and responsible behavior,” said Phil Haugen, assistant general manager of Northern Quest Casino. “That’s especially true now that we’re serving alcohol on the casino floor.”

To reinforce the importance of designating one driver who will not drink, Northern Quest Casino has begun an awareness campaign that includes special HERO t-shirts for beverage servers in the casino, and video messages on top of many slot machines and billboards throughout the region. More than half of Northern Quest’s 1,000 team members will undergo special training so they can quickly identify and deal with potential alcohol-related problems.

The HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers® was created following the tragic death of Navy Ensign John R. Elliott in July 2000, who only weeks earlier had graduated with honors from the U.S. Naval Academy. Elliott, who was from New Jersey, was killed by a drunk driver who just hours earlier had been arrested for driving under the influence, then subsequently released from custody and drove his car again while still intoxicated.

Elliott’s family successfully lobbied state officials for legislation known as “John’s Law,” which requires police to impound the cars of those charged with drunk driving for up to 12 hours and to also issue responsibility warnings to those taking custody of the DUI offenders.
Several states have adopted the legislation, and in 2005 President Bush signed a transportation bill that included a national version of “John’s Law.”

For more information about the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers, visit www.herocampaign.org

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