Red Ribbon rookie

RONAN — Many residents were seeing red again last week during Red Ribbon Week at four school districts in Lake County.

The annual event to promote drug prevention and awareness among students has been going on for several years, but this was Tammy Young’s first time planning the events for K. William Harvey Elementary in Ronan.

“It went really well,” Young said. “The kids were really excited and I enjoyed seeing the participation.”

She said about 75 to 80 percent of students joined in for the dress up days, which included a pajama day, a sunglasses day and a red day.

Young said while it is important to get the message out to all students about drug and alcohol awareness, it is especially crucial to start reaching elementary age children.

“I think it’s huge because the younger they know about healthy choices, the more likely they are to make those healthy choices in their lives,” she said.

In kindergarten classrooms, Young showed pictures of healthy choices like running, swimming and vegetables. She also showed unhealthy choices like cigarettes, prescription drugs and household cleaners. Young discussed with kids that though prescription medicines can help when you are sick, they should be taken with an adult present and that household cleaners should be used by adults.

“They get it and they did really well with [the exercise],” she said.

With the older kids, Young talked to them about ways to ‘say no’ to drugs and about telling adults if they thought there was a problem.

Looking toward the future, Young’s long-term goals for Red Ribbon week are to get the community involved with the students to promote drug and alcohol awareness within the larger community setting.