With prom and graduation just around the corner, St. Charles high school students and police hit the streets to spread the message that providing alcohol to minors is illegal.

The effort was the St. Charles Police Department’s first year of Project Sticker Shock, a program of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. April is Alcohol Awareness Month.

“I definitely feel there’s lot of underage drinking going on, especially around prom, and there’s a stigma out there that the only way you can have fun is by drinking,” said St. Charles North senior Buddy Haas. “So if you cut it off at the source, that can help solve the problem.”

Officers and students from both St. Charles North and East high schools aimed to stop last week at the 89 businesses with liquor licenses and provide them with signs and stickers warning customers that it’s illegal to buy alcohol for someone under 21 and to use a fake ID.

“We’re not delivering or sending people a message they haven’t heard, but because it’s a problem that persists and grows, we need to keep sending the message,” Cmdr. Jerry Gatlin said.

While he said he doesn’t believe underage drinking is more of a problem in St. Charles than other communities, he said nationwide it “is in a sense an epidemic and it has been for years. If one kid is out there drinking and drinking too much, it’s one kid too many,” he said.

In 2009, an 18-year-old was killed when the vehicle he was riding in struck two trees at a high rate of speed along Royal Fox Drive in St. Charles. The driver, also 18, allegedly had a blood-alcohol level almost three times the legal limit and later pleaded guilty to aggravated drunken driving and reckless homicide charges.

The seven students who participated in Project Sticker Shock on Friday are part of a club called H.O.P.E. — Helping Others Protect Each other. East junior Nick Devor said he was excited to join police in their efforts.

“It’s a chance to actually help the community with a problem that’s really, it’s pretty bad at most high schools,” Devor said.

Samantha Stone, owner of the Thirsty Fox Pub, said she was happy to display the warning stickers in her window.

“I don’t want to get in trouble and I don’t want anyone else to get in trouble,” she said.

The penalties for selling or serving alcohol to a minor include fines of $500 to $2,500 and up to a year in jail. Those same penalties also apply to parents allowing minors to drink alcohol in their home. A minor consuming alcohol could face up to a $500 fine and a month in jail.