Holding her son Billy’s red skateboard, Sheri Clark tires to forget the painful thoughts of the loss of her teenage son.

Clark, of Ames, is helping gain support from area parents and community members for a keg ordinance in the hopes of preventing more deaths similar to her son’s.

Clark’s son, Billy, 15, died in February from an alcohol-related incident. Billy apparently fell from a bridge spanning the Boone River and drowned after he’d been drinking with friends, who fled the scene.

“It is my hope to save some lives of our youth that are being provided alcohol,” Clark said. “And hope that if you are an adult and purchasing alcohol for a minor that they would stop and think before doing it.”

The keg ordinance would provide a way to hold someone responsible if anything were to happened to an underage drinker.

“Everyone has individual responsibility. When you are 21, you have the right to drink but with that comes responsibility,” said Denise Denton, ISU senior lecturer and prevention specialist for Youth and Shelter Services. “We want grown-ups to think about it before buying alcohol for youth. There are consequences to actions.”

Denton added that while the ordinance is not aimed at college students, it will impact them. The ordinance would require customers to provide identification, addresses and sign a log when purchasing a keg of alcohol.

“The law is about setting a standard. The very soul of this is about keeping people safe,” Denton said. “It’s not about squelching anyone’s good time. We want everyone to have a good time, but safely.”

Clark said many of the surrounding counties are willing to pursue and support the same ordinance. That would make it more difficult for someone trying to purchase a keg in a different county to get around the ordinance here. Denton said she has spoken personally with the Boone County Board of Supervisors and they have indicated they want a similar ordinance.

“There are a number of other cities and states that have keg ordinance laws and those areas have seen a significant decrease in deaths of underage drinkers,” Denton said.

“We’ve done a lot of research on this and the research has been very clear that when you implement policies, strategies or procedures that make it more difficult for young people to get alcohol, then alcohol-related deaths go down.”

Clark said at previous Youth and Shelter Services meetings that underage drinking is increasing and the ordinance is needed especially now.

“My son wasn’t the only kid out there. There were many kids and they know where to go to get alcohol and who to get it from, and that’s scary,” Clark said.