Nearly six hundred people attended the “We Check For 21.” The program kick off officially starts the annual underage drinking awareness campaign in Cape May County. A record number attended the two training and information sessions hosted by Freeholder Gerald Thornton and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
This year marks the 19th anniversary of the program that originated in Cape May County in 1993 and has since been implemented statewide. The initiative that coined the slogan “If you’re too young to buy don’t even try” originally had forty businesses involved. Now, 19 years later more than one hundred businesses are participating.
The “We Check for 21” kick off program featured Underage Drinking Initiatives presented by the NJ Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, a Fake Identification Training Session by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission Fraudulent Document Training Unit and a report on the Memorial Day Weekend Turn-Away program presented by Freeholder Thornton. Additionally, New Jersey State Parole Board Chairman James Plousis, who started the program in Cape May County when he was Sheriff, was a guest speaker.