By RODNEY HART

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Sarah Panzau is completely at ease standing on a stage in front of high school and college students. She wears a blank tank top and shorts, not afraid to show what remains of her left arm or the scars on her right shoulder and her left knee.

Her message about making tough choices and the dangers of drinking and driving is as physical as it is verbal. The Belleville native, 26, was in Quincy Monday as part of Anheuser-Busch's education and awareness program.

Panzau shared her story of literally coming back from the dead after an August 2003 drunken-driving crash. Panzau was in a coma for more than two weeks and in the hospital for 2 1/2 months, and she has endured 36 ensuing surgeries.

She received a standing ovation after the morning presentation at Quincy Notre Dame High School. Monday afternoon, she engaged students in playful banter and strode confidently around the stage and into John Wood Community College's Mary Ellen Orr Auditorium audience.

"I could sit behind that nice podium there and have a nice big stack of statistics about drinking and driving," Panzau said. "They are true, and they relate to tragedy. Unfortunately, we don't relate to any of that.

"You are going to leave here today and go back to your classrooms and you won't remember any of it. But I guarantee you will remember me."

Panzau was a standout high school and junior college volleyball player. But she gave up her education after getting a job as a 19-year-old bartender, more interested in the party life than pursuing athletics and academics.

Then came Aug. 23, 2003. With her blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit, Panzau crashed her car on U.S. 64 and was catapulted out of the vehicle.

Panzau started her presentation by showing graphic crash-scene photos on a large video screen. They show her on a stretcher with the bloody nub of her left arm, severed in the crash, clearly visible.

"I was given a zero percent chance of surviving," Panzau said.

She talked about the two Illinois State Police troopers who told her mother after the crash that her daughter was deceased.

"I could not imagine today what I put my mother through," she said, voice choking and fighting back tears. "Family will be there for you no matter what, no matter how dysfunctional you think you might be."

She asked students about whom to call if they are too drunk to drive or in a tough situation. She also sympathized when the issue of calling parents came up and what friends mean.

Capt. Pat Staples, commander of Illinois State Police District 20 in Pittsfield, called the presentation "very powerful."

"You would hope it would have an impact and make them think," Staples said.

Panzau had a student come onstage and help Panzau proudly display her U.S. women's sitting volleyball team jersey, and she talked about representing her country at the World Championships two years ago.

She also talked about people calling her disabled, of realizing she lost an arm.

But she refused to be condescending or come off as feeling sorry for herself, saying she is lucky every day during the school year to talk to students about making good choices.

Panzau does between 30 and 50 presentations a month during the school year all over the country. She started making presentations in November 2004. A friend helped her with the video, and she wrote much of the presentation in two hours. She calls it "a slap of reality right in your face."

"It's like it was meant to be, and it took off from there," Panzau said.

-- rhart@whig.com/221-3370