After hunkering down for more than two years, separated from friends and family, we are coming together in person for our walk. We will continue to do what we at MADD have done for 38 years to help end and fight drugged driving, support the victims of these violent crimes, and prevent underage drinking.

Why do we do this? Consider the 11,654 people who were killed nationally in alcohol-related traffic crashes in 2020.

In Hawaii, we lost 27 individuals — family, friends and community members — in impaired driving crashes.

We can and need to do better.

After a three-year hiatus, we can finally come together in person at Hawaii’s Walk Like MADD on Sept. 17, at Kakaako Waterfront Park. We will be joined by Alex Otte, our national MADD president who will be in Hawaii for the first time. Otte is herself a living testament to the impact of this preventable crime and the need for continuing education.

Alex Otte was run over by a drunken boater when she was just 13 years old. She wasn’t expected to survive. She suffered severe, life-threatening and lifelong injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, a broken neck and the loss of her right leg. She came to MADD as she wanted to be the last little girl this would ever happen to. Twelve years later, she recognizes, with sorrow, that she wasn’t.

Walk Like MADD is our signature noncompetitive, family-friendly 5K fundraising walk. All funds raised will support MADD Hawaii’s programs in our Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving.

We continue to do this because it is needed. That is what the statistics are telling us. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recent estimates for the first quarter of 2022 for all traffic fatalities in the U.S. show an estimated 9,560 people died. It is an alarming increase of 7% over 2021. This is the highest number of fatalities since the first quarter of 2002.

We believed the lockdowns and decreased miles traveled would result in fewer traffic fatalities in 2020 and 2021. We were wrong. With more people driving in 2022, the estimates for the first quarter indicate another deadly increase. We can surmise that there will be an increase in alcohol-related fatalities.

This is personal for many. It certainly is personal for me. Sept. 2 marks 30 years that my 15-year-old son, Brian, was killed just four blocks from home in a crash involving a driver who had been arrested not once, not twice, but six times, for driving under the influence.

Alex Otte lives with the daily pain and loss of her lifelong injuries. I live with the lifelong pain of losing my beloved son.

This is a community issue. We can and must do better. Drunken driving is a 100% preventable crime.

It is truly simple: if you value life, your own and that of others — don’t drink and drive.

We are walking to bring awareness and to help prevent other families from experiencing the pain and loss many of us have had to endure because of the deadly consequences of impaired driving.

Join MADD and Walk to Save Lives on Sept. 17 at Kakaako Waterfront Park (register at www.WalkLikeMADD.org/Hawaii). And tell a friend. You could save a life or two.

Theresa Paulette is the program manager and victim services specialist with the Hawaii state office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).