Gold Coast was proud to be the sponsor for the second year for the University of Miami's SAFE SPRING BREAK program.

Every year thousands of college students participate in some type of spring break activity whether it is in a tropical climate, a ski trip, or a road trip. Due to the fact that some students engage in high-risk behaviors during this time period, it is crucial for peer educators to provide students on campus with information that will help insure that their spring break will be a success!

The Safe Spring Break Campaign—What Is It?

Through the promotion of safe and sober driving, responsible decision-making, planned strategies for personal safety and avoiding high-risk drinking, we hope to reduce if not eliminate the number of injuries and deaths among college and university students during the spring break period. And, since healthy decision-making such as choosing to drive safe and sober are necessary life skills, Gold Coast helped to save lives long after Spring Break was over.

Underage Drinking   

The beer industry has often been blamed for encouraging teenagers to drink alcoholic beverages.  This is an unfair accusation - we do not want our products to be sold to everyone.  Beer, like other alcoholic beverages, must be limited to only those people who can responsibly consume such products.

We recognize that beer is a product meant for adults.  Teenagers cannot responsibly handle alcohol consumption.  Therefore, Gold Coast sponsors a number of programs designed to prevent underage drinking. 

Many of our brewer partners help in producing materials and training to stop underage drinking.  For example, Coors Brewing Company has included on most of their promotional materials as well as many commercials the message: "21 means 21". 

Miller Brewing Company recognizes the critical need for parents to take an active role in preventing underage.  Miller designed a pamphlet called "Let's Talk" that Gold Coast has distributed many times for parents to engage in discussions about responsibility and alcohol consumption with kids ages 6-11.  This guide was created in cooperation with leading psychologists, family counselors and law enforcement officials.

Miller also released a new pamphlet called "Let's Keep Talking" for parents of teenagers to help their teens make healthy, responsible decisions - including the decision to wait until they are 21 to consume alcohol.  The booklet also provides guidance to parents on asking the right questions; preparing their kids for college and life after high school; the laws governing underage drinking; the consequences associated with poor decisions; and the need to continue the two-way dialogue.

We do not sell directly to the public - we can only encourage our customers, the retailers, to follow state law.  Hopefully, by working together with retailers to make sure they ID underage drinkers and by reinforcing the message that our community is more important than profits, Gold Coast can help stop underage drinking. 

Improvements in reducing the prevalence of underage drinking can be seen by clicking here.

Drinking & Driving 

Since the 1980s, the issue of drinking and driving has moved into national prominence.  Gold Coast and its suppliers recognize that not all people will consume alcohol responsibly. 

Gold Coast supports local organizations that prevent drinking and driving.  One of the more successful programs is University of Miami's Ibis Ride, which provides sober transportation to students.  Gold Coast and Miller Brewing Company provided $10,000 to help extend the service to Thursday nights.  This is just one way we help support the local community to avoid drinking and driving.

Improvements in the rates of drunk driving have occurred through greater awareness as well as tougher laws.  For more information about improvement in drunk driving statistics, click here.

Hopefully, the message will get through to everyone that drinking and driving do not mix.  Until that day, Gold Coast will continue to train its employees, its customers, and the community not to abuse the responsibility to drive safely.

Community Education

Miller was one of the companies to spread the word about having a designated driver, and many other supplier programs are aimed at the same message: "When you drink, don't drive!"  Gold Coast employs a person dedicated to responsibility training who has conducted many retailer training classes through Training for Intervention ProcedureS (TIPS^®).  In fact, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush recognized Gold Coast for its TiPS training - see the letter here! 

If you would like more information on our efforts, please contact our Responsibility Initiative Manager at mcafferty@goldcoastbeverage.com.