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.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine