Agencies, students team up to discourage drug use

LAKE COUNTY— Up and down the county, local schools used a week in the second half of October to promote a drug-free lifestyle. Arlee, Charlo, Ronan, Pablo, Polson and St. Ignatius schools all took time to celebrate Red Ribbon Week with events, speakers and lessons with a “just say no to drugs” message.

Teaming up with Julia Roberts, a prevention specialist at Western Montana Addiction Services, students participated in different activities to encourage alternatives to drugs and alcohol. Children at K. William Harvey Elementary in Ronan wore red ribbons, while Linderman Elementary kids wore red bracelets that said “I’ve got better things to do than drugs.”

Polson’s younger students wore the bracelets from Oct. 26-30, and were visited by a large group of high school students last Tuesday, who spoke with the children about different issues, like peer pressure and activities they can partake in without drugs. Polson seniors Nicole Davey and Staci Benson used their personal experiences when they spoke to Mrs. Farnstrom’s third grade class.

“I remember when I was younger, I would look up to older high school girls and boys as role models, so following their examples helped me, so I want to help younger kids too,” Davey said.

Benson had a similar reaction when speaking to the enthusiastic youngsters.

“I think that even at the younger ages, starting to talk to them now can affect the choices that they make in the future,” she said.

Linderman students also had a visit from McGruff the Crime Dog on Thursday, a “wear red” Friday and a Monster Mash Fun Run on Halloween Saturday that helped round out the week, according to Linderman counselor Chris McElwee.

“We promote healthy things for the kids to do to stay off drugs and alcohol,” McElwee said.

Sufia West, the counselor at Ronan Middle School, worked with Coalition for Kids, a nonprofit in Polson, to come up with interactive events for the kids to participate in, including creating coffee cup sleeves with anti-drug slogans that were distributed to area coffee shops.

“The seventh graders created a display about keeping tobacco sacred, and the differences between sacred tobacco and corporate tobacco,” West said. “We were very happy to do it, and the kids were very excited.”

Roberts had a chance to work firsthand with a group of Polson Middle School students.

“I worked with Julie Duford’s fifth grade class, and on Thursday, they led activities for the fourth graders,” Roberts said. “It was a fun week and I really enjoyed working with the class. The kids were excited and worked well too.”

The annual event first arose after the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Agency Official Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985 by members of a drug cartel in Mexico. After wearing red ribbons to honor the late Camarena, the congressman for Camarena’s hometown district in California lobbied for recognition of Camarena’s bravery and efforts against drugs. The first Red Ribbon Week was held in October 1988, and has been held nationally during that month every year since.

Benson and Davey, both of whom star on the Polson volleyball team, explained how sports are a healthy outlet for kids of all ages.

“I think it’s encouraging them to pick activities that keep you busy so you don’t have much of a chance to go out and do drugs and other things that we encourage them not to do,” Benson said.

“It shows them there are other fun things to do to keep you busy,” Davey said.