PARENTS TO GET A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

GLASTONBURY -- Teenagers, volunteers and town employees have planned and
run substance-free coffeehouses in town every month for nearly eight years.

Adults will get their own version Saturday, when the town and Glastonbury
Alcohol and Drug Council, or GLAD, sponsors the first Parents' Night Out at
Academy School.

The event is designed to show parents what GLAD and the town are doing with
a $100,000 federal Drug Free Communities grant. So far, grant money has
gone to outfit a game room in the makeshift teen center at Academy, to pay
for parks and recreation staff to help run the teen center and to pay
police overtime to conduct compliance checks at stores that sell tobacco.

"The main reason for them to come is to see what the teen center has to
offer," said Geralyn Laut, the driving force behind GLAD and the federal grant.

Parents' Night Out will mirror the teen coffeehouses, with basketball,
table games, swing and salsa dance lessons and a band. The band, Selfish
Steam, is composed of musicians recovering from addiction problems.

Laut said she hopes more parents will come to the coffeehouse than normally
attend seminars on drug and alcohol abuse.

"Parents don't come out for workshops on drugs, but maybe they will for
music with a positive message," Laut said. "I'd like to see the room
overflowing."

Ray Bull, program director for the teen center, said parents who have
walked through the game room at Academy have been pleased to see billiard
tables, air hockey and pingpong.

"We're finding a lot of parents who say they wish we had more of this so
they can come shoot pool," said Bull, whose position is funded by the grant.

Parents' Night Out will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Academy School. If
nothing else, Laut said, it's a chance for parents to enjoy a night out
with their neighbors.

"When was the last time you had an invitation to come out and play?" Laut asked.