Safer Sex Patrol promotes healthy student interactions

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Jacob Saren wants to help prevent CMU students from making poor decisions that may affect them later in life.
Saren, a Clinton junior, is a part of Safer Sex Patrol- an organization ran through Central Michigan University’s Volunteer Center dedicated to reducing the number of sexually transmitted diseases and infections in the community and on campus.
“I love Safer Sex Patrol,” he said. “I think in a weird way, it’s kind of a lot of fun.”
As the student coordinator of SSP, Grant senior Carly Davis works to coordinate “kit stuffings” and “bar patrols” one to four times a month.
Members of SSP meet to attach informational sheets about the consequences of unprotected sex to condoms, and attach information about abstinence to pieces of candy. Members then split into groups and visit bars across Mount Pleasant to distribute the kits.
“It’s kind of raising awareness for both abstinence and for those who choose to engage in sexual activity,” she said.
Davis said SSP typical does not purchase its own condoms. The organization relies heavily on donations from various parts of campus.
University Health services supplied SSP with 2,000 condoms this year. Program Board also donated $300 toward condom supplies for SSP.
Davis said SSP has received a total of 8,000 condoms just from donations. Money budgeted for SSP, she said, typically goes to buy candy, t-shirts, tape, scissors and printing costs.
All the materials are put together to create the kits for distribution at each bar patrol.
“(We) go in and they distribute all the condoms and the candy,” Davis said. “We always ask people. There are a lot of people that are receptive to our services, but there are also those that find it appalling.”
As one of the CMU students receptive to the services offered by SSP, Saint Clair Shores senior Sarah Kamlay thinks the organization is great.
“Some people get really drunk at the bar and probably wouldn’t use a condom unless somebody handed it to them,” she said. “Those people shouldn’t be reproducing.”
Novi senior Jessica Jodoin agrees.
“When most people are drunk and have sex, they just do it without a condom,” she said. “They don’t really think about the consequences when they’re drunk. They’re going to use (the condom) because it’s free.”
Davis said SSP has over 400 members that have signed up for this year alone, with numbers capped between 70 and 80 participants allowed for bar patrols.
“There are always new people each time we do this,” Saren said.
Davis and Saren have experienced mixed reactions from people approached by members of SSP.
Saren said the most awkward moments of a bar patrol happen when he asks a couple if they would like a condom.
Sometimes, he explained, they’re not an actual couple- they’re just on a date.
“They’ll laugh you off, but they’ll take it as well,” he said. “Usually they might be intoxicated, and I feel like once people take them, they’re like, oh thanks.”
However, most people are generally unphased by members of SSP.
“I think there are those people that will take one, take two, ask for a couple and they’ll use them and they’ll stay safe, and there are those that kind of ignore us,” Davis said.