Community Corner
Family Day Comes to Hopatcong Monday, Sept. 23
Families are encouraged to get take out and have supper together to bring parents and kids together—and keep kids away from drugs.
For the third year running, Hopatcong families get a chance to eat out while doing good: CASAColumbia Family Day is Monday. That's when families are encouraged to get take out from a participating local restaurant and to eat dinner together.
The Family Day effort was launched in 2001 by CASAColumbia to celebrate parental engagement as an effective tool to help keep U.S. children substance-free. This is the third year that take-out eateries in Hopatcong are participating.
CASAColumbia's message is that as children grow up, it is important to build trust with them and keep lines of communication open so that they know Mom and Dad are the places to go for help if they are faced with peer pressure and difficult choices regarding smoking, drinking and using drugs.
The group says everyday activities like having family dinner together, helping kids with their homework or attending their after-school activities shows children that parents care—and that can have a lasting, positive effect on their lives. And it's a benefit to parents too to have the opportunity to connect with their teens, share and really listen to what’s on their minds.
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Research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use other drugs. Family meals are the perfect time to talk to your kids and to listen to what’s on their mind.
Click here to download a list of Sept. 23 Family Day participating restaurants and their specials.
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