RALEIGH - About 300 students and chapter advisors from across North Carolina are expected to participate in the 26th annual N.C. Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Leadership Conference, to be held Nov. 21-23 at the Hilton North Raleigh.

The conference theme is "Write Your Own Script." Featured speakers include Craig Lloyd, Executive Director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving North Carolina; Peggy Bennett of Charlotte, a mother whose son was severely injured in a drunk driving crash; Joe Stewart of the N.C. Insurance Federation; Ivy Farmer, Advisor of the Year from Cape Fear High School in Fayetteville; and Darian LaNeave of Winston-Salem, a Wake Forest University freshman who is the N.C. SADD Student of the Year.

The conference begins at 3 p.m. Nov. 21 and continues through 12 noon Nov. 23. It will feature a variety of workshops for students and advisors and group activities related to SADD's mission of assisting young people in their schools and communities to promote highway safety and reduce teen involvement with alcohol, other drugs, violence, teen pregnancy and other challenges they face. Members of the 2008-09 SADD Student Advisory Board will lead many of the sessions.

Major sponsors of the conference are the Governor's Highway Safety Program, N.C. Department of Transportation; the Office of Prevention and Early Intervention, N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Mental Health, Substance Abuse Services; AT&T, and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

N.C. SADD is part of the Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office of the N.C. Department of Administration. For registration or additional information about the conference, contact SADD State Coordinator Harriett Southerland at 919-789-5880, or visit http://www.doa.nc.gov/yaio/ncsadd.htm