Providing an alternative to alcohol

OSHKOSH - It's another Friday night and at colleges across the area students are getting ready to cut loose.  For some, their weekend party will have a potentially dangerous and often illegal guest of honor: alcohol.  However, a few students at UW-Oshkosh are in the middle of their first school year offering a sober alternative.

Pictures of a party, plastic cups in students' hands but instead of beer, these cups contain water, soda or Kool-Aid.

"'Why would you wanna have a party without alcohol?'  And my response is, 'because no one else is doing it,'" explained Jake White, a UW-Oshkosh student who doesn't drink, going on to explain, "my family has a history of abusing addictive substances, so I didn't wanna fall into that trap."

White and his friend Steven Vanevenhoven wanted an alternative.

"Maybe there's something we could do different to have a really awesome time, but still remember what we did the night before," said Vanevenhoven.

That's how Party.0 came to be.  At the beginning of this school year White and Vanevenhoven started throwing completely sober parties.  They've had eight so far, with about 150 partiers showing up on average.  There's free food, dj's and games like water pong.

Vanevenhoven told FOX 11 they're able to afford the soirees thanks to a community grant and sponsorships from area businesses.

"A lot of them have been really supportive donating food, prizes, their time," he explained.

The group isn't affiliated with the school, but Vanevenhoven told us the administration is supportive.  Fraternities have even stepped forward to host most of the parties.

The students said they have received criticism from their peers who do drink.

"We don't condone drinking, but we don't condemn it either.  We're not going to look down on you because you do drink," explained Vanevenhoven.

White told us they welcome anyone to give their parties a try.

"If they give it a shot and find out, 'wow, I was still the life of the party,' or 'I still met a lot of great people and had fun," he said.

No such party this weekend.  The next Party.0 will be Saturday night, March 2nd at 9 p.m. at Lou's Brew café in Oshkosh.

You can reach the Party.0 blog here: http://soberparties.wordpress.com/