North San Diego Young Marines Win DEA Award

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Young Marines, a national youth organization, announced the Young Marines unit winners of the Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Award. The award honors six units, one award per division, for drug demand reduction efforts through community education and peer-to-peer role modeling.

The awards were presented by Cathleen Drew, a DEA prevention program manager, at the Young Marines Annual Adult Leaders' Conference on Thursday, May 10, in San Antonio, Texas.

The winners are:

• Division One – Fall River Young Marines, Fall River, Massachusetts
• Division Two – Manassas Young Marines, Manassas, Virginia
• Division Three – Rocket City Young Marines, Huntsville, Alabama
• Division Four – Guadalupe Young Marines, Seguin, Texas
• Division Five – Hendricks County Young Marines, Pittsboro, Indiana
• Division Six – North San Diego Young Marines, Vista, California

“Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena Division Award,” said Robert Patterson, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “The Young Marines exemplify what it means to be a productive citizen through academic achievement, community service, and living a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. Thank you for promoting the importance of preventing drug abuse and for helping to make your schools and communities safer and healthier.”

Young Marine units are judged on drug demand reduction (DDR) hours, curriculum and the steps taken to reach out to the community to include peers and others. Units can enter pictures, endorsements, proclamations, videos and other items that help demonstrate their drug demand reduction efforts. The best two or three entries per division are sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s headquarters, and a winner from each division is selected.

"We are proud to work with the DEA, and we congratulate the six outstanding units who won this prestigious award," said Joe Lusignan, drug demand reduction resource officer with the Young Marines. "We had more submissions for these awards than ever in our past. Our Young Marines are truly committed to making a difference in their local communities, and their efforts are being recognized."

The award is named in memory of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena who served as a Marine. He was very concerned about the drug problem in the U.S., and in 1974, he became a special agent with the DEA. He worked in Mexico, and he had come dangerously close to exposing the top leaders of a multi-billion drug pipeline. He was abducted and brutally murdered in 1985 at the age of 37.

Agent Camarena received numerous awards while with the DEA, and after his death, he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In 2004, the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation was established in his memory.

In addition, National Red Ribbon Week was established in Agent Camarena’s memory. It is time set aside to teach young people to avoid drug use. One of the qualifiers for the award is Young Marines units’ participation in Red Ribbon Week. The 2018 Red Ribbon Week is Oct. 23 - 31, 2018.

About the Young Marines

The Young Marines is a national non-profit 501c (3) youth education and service program for boys and girls, age eight through the completion of high school. The Young Marines promotes the mental, moral and physical development of its members. The program focuses on teaching the values of leadership, teamwork and self-discipline, so its members can live and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Since the Young Marines' humble beginnings in 1959 with one unit and a handful of boys, the organization has grown to 270 units with 9,000 youth and 2,600 adult volunteers in 40 states, the District of Columbia, Japan, and affiliates in other countries.

For more information, visit the official website at: http://www.YoungMarines.com