It has been an incredible year for Five Moms, and we have reached many parents with our message to prevent cough medicine abuse. Thanks to you and all your work, our year ended on a fantastic note: Recent results released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the annual Monitoring the Future report show that cough medicine abuse declined in 2008. With that in mind, I would like to take a moment to look at what we have accomplished over the past year.

In January, we introduced you to the first of our Five Moms All-Stars Rose Mary Kendrick. The Five Moms All-Stars were five great women who are helping us spread the Five Moms mission. Thank you to everyone who shared stories about spreading the word about cough medicine abuse; it was very difficult to choose only five winners from our very worthy pool of candidates. You can read about all our All-Stars in Becky’s article and learn more about the five incredible moms we chose.

Last spring, we also asked you to keep an eye on television and movies. A&E’s Intervention showed how serious a problem cough medicine abuse is when it featured 23-year-old Ben who was asked by his friends and family to seek help for his abuse of dextromethorphan, the active ingredient in cough medicine. Hilda also pointed out an informative and enlightening Superbowl advertisement sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America that will give you a great piece to talk about with your friends and family.

The summer was truly a thrilling time for us. In July, Five Moms had the exciting opportunity to participate in BlogHer08, a conference connecting women bloggers, writers, and entrepreneurs across the country. Hilda packed her bags and joined over 1,000 women at this year’s convention in San Francisco. There, Hilda shared the Five Moms cause with BlogHer attendees and talked about her experience with the campaign. In fact, 5 Minutes for Mom co-creator Janice interviewed Hilda about Five Moms and posted the video at her site.

As summer drew to a close, we continued to share tips and articles with you on our newly redesigned Five Moms web site. In addition to an updated design, we added more resources en Español, including a Spanish version of the Tell-A-Friend tool. Blaise wrote about keeping your kids safe online, and I shared with you how to prevent cough medicine abuse by challenging your kids to participate in summer activities. Christy also found some great resources for families online, and Becky explained how a town hall meeting works.

We still have plenty of work ahead of us in 2009 to continue to prevent cough medicine abuse among our children and teens, but it is exciting and inspiring to see how far we have come in 2008. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thank you again for all your help and support, and have a very happy and safe New Year.