More than 200 volunteers distributed alcohol safety information to students in preparation for Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day during the Champaign Community Coalition’s “Walk as One” event Wednesday.

Information about alcohol poisoning, amendments to state laws regarding social hosting and information about city fines were among the items delivered to an estimated 2,900 campus residences, said Lt. Jim Clark of the Champaign Police Department.

The event was a preemptive measure led by members of the University, the three local police departments and the Champaign Community Coalition. Champaign Mayor Don Gerard said the informal campus holiday is a community-wide issue and said it is the job of both the cities of Champaign and Urbana, along with the University, to take on the role of keeping people safe.

“We want people to respect our community, and we want them to respect the rights of others,” Gerard said. “So what we need to do is manage it to make people safe. Taking what was an event started in the spirit of civil disobedience and taking that aspect out.”

Ashley Dye, assistant dean of students and director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, said the student volunteers delivered the information with team leaders from the community, including police officers, firefighters, city council members and members of the Champaign Community Coalition.

“We really value our relationship and partnership with both the cities,” Dye said. “The hope really is that people are thinking about having a plan for the way that they are engaging with alcohol in general and to think ahead about those things so that they can make smart choices.”

Pauline Chitambo, freshman in LAS, was one of 30 student volunteers who helped stuff 2,900 bags Monday in preparation for Wednesday’s event. She said she thinks it is a good idea to distribute safety information in advance, as it may prevent some students from engaging in dangerous behavior.

“People are going to pay a little bit more attention to the information that is coming toward them,” she said. “Maybe they’ll look over everything, maybe they won’t. But they’ll at least see one thing.”

Clark wrote in an email that in 2012, Unofficial resulted in seven state criminal arrests, 22 medical calls and 14 trips to the hospital. That number was down from 2011, where 10 criminal arrests were made, 36 medical calls were placed and 28 people were transported to the hospital.

“This is a community problem,” Clark said. “This isn’t something law enforcement is going to solve. It’s going to take law enforcement, the community and the University all working together.”

Champaign City Manager Steve Carter was in attendance Wednesday and reiterated the fact that the community feels some responsibility for the safety of University students.

“The University is an important part of the whole community,” Carter said. “We feel responsible, and we want the students to feel safe when they’re here.”

The volunteers walked a portion of campus, moving south from Green Street to Gregory Drive from Fourth Street west to Oak Street, Clark said.

“Typically, that has been an area where we’ve had the most problems,” Clark said. “Unruly parties, those kinds of things. We knew trying to walk the entire campus was too big an apple to take a bite of.”

He said he also previously spoke with property managers on campus and Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, who emailed the information to their residents and members.

“A lot of the information we’re distributing is stuff we’ve always put out, but it’s in the press release format,” Clark said.

“We realize a lot of students probably don’t see the mainstream press, so we felt this was a better way of trying to get that information out.”

Emma can be reached at wessmnn2 @dailyillini.com.