Pubdate: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 Source: Hendersonville Times-News (NC) Copyright: 2006 Hendersonville Newspaper Corporation Contact: http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/793 YOUTHFUL VOICES MADE A DIFFERENCE Sheriff Rick Davis has wisely decided to continue the popular DARE Camp. Campers and counselers get credit for bringing the importance of the anti-drug effort to the attention of the new sheriff. During the fall campaign, Davis, a former sheriff's captain and the Republican sheriff nominee, ruffled feathers when he indicated the Drug Abuse Resistance Education summer camp might be cut. Davis was looking for ways to streamline and reorganize projects such as DARE. The program's main focus -- bringing law officers into the schools to befriend youngsters, give them positive law enforcement role models and teach about dangers of drugs -- was never in question. But some residents worried the camp, during which kids enjoy outdoor and team-building activities, might be on the chopping block when annual fundraising didn't take place On Dec. 19 Davis announced he would bring school resource officers to the county's three middle schools, and that DARE camp would continue this summer. The two issues are inextricably linked, the sheriff said. "For too many years our DARE officers were spending much of their time outside of the classroom performing logistical work and fundraising to support our annual summer DARE Camp," Davis said. "Their time, when not teaching DARE, can be better used serving the students, teachers and schools of Henderson County as school resource officers. We can accomplish this transition without asking for a single extra tax dollar." Davis asked Robert Danos, an administrator at Camp Mondamin, to help him find a better way to finance DARE Camp than having officers do the legwork. The plan to return the camps to Camp Pinewood under a new structure will allow the program to serve 320 children this summer, an increase of 45 over last summer, Danos said. In a recent letter to the Times-News, Danos said that DARE students, including campers and counselors at the camp, deserved credit for making Davis aware of how much the camp means to youngsters. They wrote e-mails and letters that were "passionate but polite," Danos wrote, informing Davis that the camp was an important reward for students who had gone through the DARE program. "If the reaction had been a collective 'Who cares?' then I would have spent my volunteer time elsewhere, and I am quite sure that Sheriff Davis would have found other ways to spend critical time and money," Danos wrote. "Instead, we heard from many of you about why this program mattered. This helped motivate us to complete the mission and now the camps will have even more kids, the Middle Schools will get school resource officers and your parents won't pay more in taxes for either." Add this to the list: Youngsters get a positive civics lesson about how their voices matter, hopefully prompting them to stay involved in their community. Now that's a great outcome, and a solution where everybody wins if we have ever heard one. - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine