Like all of you, my mind and heart has been taken up with Fletcher and Fletchersmom after reading about the tragedy with The Choking Game.

I decided to take my own action. Not only did I speak with my own children, but I emailed all of the parents in my address book, and gave them a little synopsis about our friend who lost her son this past weekend due to this game.

I urged them to go to this website: Choking Game Education: Deadly Games Children Play: Awareness, Family Help, Statistics, Victims in order to become informed, and to then speak with their children.

Fletchersmom incredibly helped to honor her son by donating his organs, and amazingly sharing her story already in this brief time period. I think together we can continue to touch many, many parents/families and inform them collectively if we all share what we learned, and refer people to the website mentioned above, which is very informative. Hopefully, our efforts can also help make a difference.

Our mycoupons cafe family is comprised of a strong, vocal group of women (and men). Together we can spread the word in honor of our friend, her son, and her family.

I asked a friend about the choking game today. She, like me, has heard of it just not in our community. My friend is friends with the jr. high school secretary so she hears a lot of what goes on in school. I asked my 12 and 14 yr. old children about the game and neither has heard of it. At this point, I tend to think it depends on what part of the U.S. you live in whether or not it's happening in your town/city.

I live in Iowa and I have heard of it. So sad......

We lost a 15 year old in our community due to it. They later were on the Oprahshow .

__________________
Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

Whether or not any of us have heard of this happening in our own area, I'm hoping we can help to prevent it from continuing. Knowledge is power.

If we can educate people before another casualty occurs, we've accomplished something.

I posted about this on another message board that I frequent. One of the replies indicated the choking game had been around a long, long time. The poster said this was going on when he was in college back in 1982.

Great idea Devinmom. I have lots of Myspace friends, that are literally all around the world, so I will add all of them on my list of send to's.

I have a son a year older than Fletcher this has really bothered me all week. I just can't get it off my mind. I have talked with my boys and our neighbor kids. I'm glad to find something else to get the word out about this horrific game, if it can even be called a game.

__________________
My MySpace Page

To Leave Me FeedBack Click HERE

My 18 year old son had heard about it. He says they use it as a new way to get high. I explained the danger of it to him. My son is mildly autistic and sometimes he just doesn't get it. He tried to tell me if he did it he would time it. I explained to him that it is very dangerous and causes brain cells to die from lack of oxygen. I also told him how much it would hurt me if something happened to him like that. It's really sad.

__________________
Work like you don't need the money,
Love like you've never been hurt, and
Dance like you do when nobody's watching.

MyCoupons Is #1 for Holiday Shopping

I had never heard of this in my area either...little did I know it was VERY close to me

When someone from here posted the bullentin on MySpace, I reposted it so all my MySpace friends could see it. Many of whom are JR High and High School kids. One sent me a message saying her brother and his friends (I know these kids, would have NEVER thought of them doing something this dangerous) do this pretty often. She printed out the bulletin and showed it to her mom. Now I am not sure if she will tell her mom about her brother and his friends but who knows. At least I know to keep and "ear" on it.

__________________

Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

I remember my sister telling me that she played this at a friend's house back in the 70's - I still remember her telling me because I thought it was a very odd game - didn't get it. So this has been around for a long time.l

I forwarded it to all my friends also. I also spoke to my daughter (she's 12) about it and she told me that she had a friend who did it while she was present and it freaked her out (My DD doesn't get scared by most things but this bothered her) she said she excused herself from the child's bedroom and told the child's mother what was going on. The child got mad at my daughter and said she wasn't a true friend for getting him in trouble but my daughter told him "you may not like me but one day you will thank me" My daughter and this child don't talk anymore so I just hope and pray that this child's mother is monitoring him more closely.

__________________
~~~~**Maryann**~~~~

I just got a firm grip on reality....
Now I can strangle it

Thanks, you guys.

I wanted to tell you that I have already had feedback since emailing the link (above) to friends/family.

One friend told me she immediately shared it with her son. He volunteered that he had tried it at a few parties, but he didn't do it "right" (gosh - to think he was looking for the RIGHT way...). She had a much needed informative conversation with him, and is attempting to contact the other parents.

I have to say that I remember this game back in junior high in the late 1960's. It is still very much around now.
I will be talking to my son tonight.
This is so sad.

__________________
Donna

When I read about this today, I cried and had chills. Since then I have talked with my boys about this tonight. I have forwarded Tami's post and the website link to my entire email address book. It spans the whole country and England and Austrailia. I have urged in my email to forward it to their friends as well. This is one email that should be sent , and hopefully it will answer a prayer, save a life, and keep a child safe.

Thank you for the idea.

I think this is a wonderful idea. I think by doing this we can save some lives by informing people of what can happen. I will do this as well. Thank you for posting this.

__________________
SAHM of Bailey 12, Tyler 10 , Emily Ann 6, and Ryan Matthew 4 yrs old.

I talked to my 3 boys about it also after reading about Fletcher. Thankfully none of my boys had ever heard of it and I explained the dangers of the game to them. I also told them to please tell an adult if any of their friends every tried this game or talked about playing the game. My 1st grader told his classmates about it and said he made sure to tell them to please tell an adult if they ever heard of someone playing it also. SO...the word is spreading!

thank you for the web site. I had heard of it on T.V. but never from my kids, which doesn't matter how much do we really know what they are doing when we are not right next to them. It shocked me to see that on the website, it must be happening around here. I live in Montgomery township, Pa. My oldest two are at a "tour of the high school" right now, we'll be talking about this today. Might not be the best dinner conversation but I think all four of my kids need to hear it.

__________________
I have OCCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Coupon Disorder!!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for all that you have done. It is SO important that you tell as many people as you can. Trent and I had NO clue this was going on. Looking back, I saw the signs, but played them off as something else. I didn't even know this game existed, and by the time it all fell into place it was too late. It is my goal now to get the word out about this. If it helps just one parent, and saves them from seeing what I did.. it will be worth it.