HOULTON, Maine — A group of more than 80 walkers turned out Saturday morning to honor the memory of a Houlton woman killed 20 years ago by a drunk driver during the first official Walk Like MADD event in the Shiretown.
Darcie Hutchinson was a graduate of the Class of 1993 at Houlton High School who was killed in Connecticut in 1996 at the age of 21 by a habitual drunk driver who was a three-time offender. That individual was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with five years suspended.
The walk raised more than $13,000 for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), well above the initial goal of $8,000. In comparison, the first unofficial walk held in Houlton back in 2010 raised $400.
All of the funds raised from the walk will remain in the state. That money is used to educate youths and parents about the consequences of drinking and driving, plus provide volunteer training to support the MADD mission.
According to the MADD website, on average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime; every 120 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash; and every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.
Considering it had been 20 years since Darcie’s death, the Hutchinson family was not sure what to expect for a turnout on Saturday. Darcie’s sister Nicole came from North Carolina, while her brother Jasen travelled from Florida to participate in the walk.
So when nearly 100 individuals turned out for the walk, the family was overwhelmed with emotion. Many students from Houlton High School, including some members of the Houlton football team wearing the team jersey’s, participated in the fundraiser.
“The outpouring of this community has been absolutely amazing,” Nicole said. “As we can see by the numbers here today, it’s incredible. We appreciate you all being here. You can always come home and that is what we really feel here today.”
Heather Campbell, a classmate of Darcie’s, has organized unofficial walks in Houlton for the past six years, typically holding them in April at the same time Nicole held her walk in Raleigh, North Carolina. The weather often played a factor in turnout for those events.
“This is like a dream come true,” Campbell said. “It was always our goal [to have an official MADD-sanctioned walk], but I never thought it would happen.”
Houlton resident Mary Jane Cleary shared her experience with drunk drivers during an emotional speech.
“Our family’s experience with drunk driving started on Jan. 19, 1990,” Cleary said. “My mother, at the age of 53, was killed by a drunk driver. No one ever sees that happening to them. It turns your whole world upside down and nothing is ever the same after that.”
In Cleary’s case, the person responsible for her mother’s death was under the age of 21 at the time of the incident. That person has since been caught numerous other times for drunk driving, she said.
“How many times is it going to take someone before they get it?” she asked. “You have the chance to kill someone every time you do it.”
She said education remains a vital component in stopping what is a “100 percent preventable” crime from taking place.
“All of the money from this walk will stay in the state for education and I think that is just incredible,” she said.
MADD National President Colleen Sheehey-Church, a resident of Connecticut, also made the journey to Houlton to participate in the first official walk. Like Cleary and the Hutchinson family, Sheehey-Church is no stranger to the tragic consequences of drunk driving. Her son, Dustin, was 18 years old and a passenger in a car operated by a teen who was impaired.
“My son was sober and seat-belted, but he got into a vehicle with someone who was impaired,” she said. “The driver had no clue what she was doing. She never hit the brakes, drove off a cliff and the car turned upside down in a river.”
The driver and a passenger in the front seat managed to escape, but Sheehey-Church’s son was unable to get out of the vehicle and drowned.
Sheehey-Church said she met Nicole at a national MADD convention two years ago and struck up a conversation with her about bringing MADD to Maine. MADD has been around for 36 years, but has no presence in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont.
“We need to be in these states,” she said. “So it was important for us to do it, but the question became, ‘How do we do this?’”
Sheehey-Church said she told Nicole that if she could organize the walk, she would make the drive to Houlton to see it to fruition.
“The core of our staff is volunteers,” Sheehey-Church said. “We are funded by grants and donations. We are a true not-for-profit organization. Without people like Nicole and Heather (Campbell), we could not make walks like this happen. This is the beginning of MADD in Maine.”
MADD officials do more than simply educate youngsters on the dangers of drunk/drugged driving. The group also serves as a personal support system for families in drunk driving cases, assisting with medical and legal struggles and also working with state legislators to create tougher laws for offenders.
The need for a MADD presence in Maine was illustrated by the fact that later in the day Saturday, two separate cases of drunk drivers being arrested following crashes in southern Aroostook County were reported by the Maine State Police.
