Cambria County Prison Warden Kurt Wolford places a sticker over a 24-pack of Leinenkugel's summer shandy beer Friday at the Burg Beer Cave distributor along West High Street in Ebensburg. The Sticker Shock project is an alcohol-prevention campaign that encourages people not to provide alcohol to minors. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

EBENSBURG — As graduating seniors plan parties for their recent or upcoming commencement ceremonies, the Cambria County Drug Coalition took to the streets Thursday to encourage people not to provide alcohol to minors.

To bring awareness to the Sticker Shock campaign, which aims to change attitudes about selling and serving alcohol to anyone under 21 years of age, officials placed stickers over alcohol products in participating businesses that read “Thank YOU for not providing alcohol to minors!”

They first visited Habits Beer & Tobacco along Franklin Street in Johnstown’s Roxbury neighborhood and Little’s Beverage along Bedford Street in Geistown Borough before making their way to the Burg Beer Cave distributor along West High Street in Ebensburg. Then, they traveled to Portage Borough where they visited Portage Dial Beer along Main Street and the Portage Beverage Co. along Branch Street.

According to the coalition’s project coordinator Nichole Rousell, officials have been participating in the initiative annually since 2016 but tripled the number of locations they visited this year to bring more awareness about the harmful effects alcohol has on a minor’s brain.

“Really, nobody should drink alcohol before your brain is fully formed at 26,” Rousell said. “So getting (adults) to not provide it to anyone under 21 would be an improvement.”

Not only is it not OK to give alcohol to a minor, it’s also against the law, Rousell said.

Cambria County Warden Kurt Wolford said he’s excited to help the coalition with various projects, like Sticker Shock, to make a healthier community.

“The more that we can do to prevent people from going to jail or reduce the recidivism rate at our prison, the more it helps the community,” Wolford said.

While placing stickers on 24-packs of Leinenkugel’s summer shandy beer at the Burg Beer Cave distributor, Wolford said, “It’s just nice to be able to give a little bit of positivity back to the community. Especially working in corrections, you don’t normally get to do that. So, it’s exciting.”

Tiki Ladani, the distributor’s manager, said Burg Beer Cave IDs customers purchasing alcohol and decided to participate in the program

“It shows the community that we do care about the people. It’s not just (about) selling beer and making money,” Ladani said.

Rousell said this year’s Sticker Shock campaign was exciting because of the collaboration happening locally.

In addition to Cambria County Prison officials, representatives from Pinnacle and Johnstown Area Regional Industries participated in the campaign at various locations throughout the day. The Portage Area School District also participated in the Portage locations, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.