September 15, 2005
Contact Diane Brimmer at 796-3801 ordlbrimmer@viterbo.edu
VITERBO UNIVERSITY TO KICK OFF FAMILY DAY FESTIVITIES
LA CROSSE, Wis. – Viterbo’s Family Day is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24, two days before Family Day is celebrated nationally. Viterbo’s Family Day 2005 will kick off the national initiative in the city of La Crosse. The festivities will include a picnic cookout, an Apple Annies performance, the La Crosse Queen Sightseeing Cruise, two soccer games, Mass and Old Times, a student theatrical performance in the La Croix Black Box Theatre.
The fourth Monday in September has been officially recognized as Family Day in the City of La Crosse. A proclamation urging all citizens of La Crosse and the Coulee Region to participate in its observance was signed by Mayor Mark Johnsrud on Aug. 22.
Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children – was established by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. It is a national effort to nurture family communication, to make family dinners routine and to reduce substance abuse among children and teens. CASA research shows that teens who have dinner with their families less than three nights a week are more likely to engage in violent physical behavior and to have sex at a young age. These young people are also twice as likely to drink alcoholic beverages, three times more likely to smoke marijuana, and four times more likely to smoke cigarettes.
Since its beginning four years ago, the President, the governors of 42 states and leaders in 400 cities and counties across the nation have issued Family Day proclamations. For further information, visit www.CASAFamilyDay.org.