Pubdate: Mon, 23 Oct 2006
Source: Moultrie Observer, The (GA)
Copyright: 2006 The Moultrie Observer
Contact: http://www.moultrieobserver.com/extras/letters.shtml
Website: http://www.moultrieobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1728
Author: Adelia Ladson

RED RIBBON WEEK KICKS OFF

MOULTRIE --The courthouse square is often the scene of celebrations, 
promotions and educational events. On Monday, it was all about drug 
prevention with a focus on the children.

"Face the fact, drugs are wack," was one of the messages the 
Communities In Schools (CIS) 21st Century Afterschool Program First 
Annual Fall Festival promoted to parents and children.

"Drug prevention is a community-wide issue," said Denise Bell, 
executive director of CIS.

The CIS Fall Festival, which helped to kick-off Red Ribbon Week, was 
held on the square Monday evening with about 350 students and parents 
in attendance. The festival included free games and activities, hot 
dogs and hamburgers and a raffle for a DVD player. Even though there 
was a chill in the air, it seemed as if the students' only concerns 
were the activities that kept them entertained. Each booth sported a 
poster with a "drug free" message that coincided with the game or 
activity being presented including phrases like "Life is sweet being 
drug free" for the sweets table and "Count drugs out" for the jelly 
bean count table. The most popular game seemed to be the soda bottle 
ring toss and this booth was constantly busy through the two-hour 
duration of the festival. Many participants walked away with a 
two-liter bottle of soda along with the other "freebies" offered and 
won during the evening.

Red Ribbon Week is a campaign that promotes a drug-free America and 
is named for the red ribbon that students, parents, teachers and 
businesses wear and display to show that they support this endeavor. 
The red ribbon was originally adopted because friends and neighbors 
began wearing red badges of satin as a symbol to honor the death of 
federal drug enforcement agent, Enrique Camarnea, who died in 
February of 1985 while investigating a major drug cartel in Mexico. 
Red Ribbon Week will run through Friday and area schools will include 
drug awareness education as part of their curriculums during the week.

CIS students, Quanika Singletary, 10, and Kyeisha Harrison, 10, both 
agreed that the event would set an example of how to be drug free and 
Ariel Johnson, 10, said that she believed the drug awareness week 
would show kids that they should not do drugs when they grew-up.

"If you didn't know about drugs, now you know," said Harrison.

These students were fifth graders currently in the 21st Century 
Afterschool Program located at the Ryce Center.

Bell said that she and her staff chose to have their First Annual 
Fall Festival as a kick-off to Red Ribbon Week because she wanted to 
share drug awareness with the community. She said the 21st Century 
Afterschool Program educates their students year round on drug 
awareness through their youth development classes and she wanted the 
community at large to have a chance to be made aware as well. She 
said that she thought the festival was a success and she also hoped 
to involve more community partners for next year's event.

"Our goal is to push it into the community," said Bell about drug 
awareness education.

Southwest Georgia Mental Health sponsored the activities for the CIS 
Fall Festival.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine