Red Ribbon Week to Promote a Drug-Free Life

Lacey Township will mark Red Ribbon Week beginning Monday, October 24 with a variety of activities targeting the town’s school children.

Red Ribbon Week is the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention program and is held the last week of October each year, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) website. Students wear red ribbons and participate in community anti-drug events, pledging to live a drug-free life.

“When students see the majority of their peers have made the smart decision to be substance-free by wearing red during the week, it lessens pressure to become involved in drugs,” said Margaret Rand, Advisor of the Lacey Township High School Association Against Drugs and Alcohol (AADA). “It shows that our students are too smart to start.”

Every student in grades K to 12 will receive a reminder gift sponsored by the Lacey Municipal Alliance. Children in the elementary schools will receive pencils and middle and high school students will be given rubber bracelets.

Over the course of Red Ribbon Week, there are several activities planned to encourage students to lead a substance-free, healthy life:

On Monday, October 24, the Municipal Alliance is sponsoring a Halloween party with an anti-drug theme for elementary school children.

Members of AADA will be visiting all the homerooms at Lacey Township Middle School to promote involvement in sports and activities rather than substances.

An assembly program will be held at the high school called “Steered Straight,” which presents a powerful message to students about drugs, alcohol, gangs and bullying. Rand said the program is being paid for with Truth About Gangs (TAG) grant money. The Steered Straight assembly uses speakers who are former troubled adolescents who have turned their lives around.

The Lacey High School cable station, Channel 21, will feature interviews with AADA members explaining the importance of Red Ribbon Week and the high school’s Substance Abuse Counselor, Bobbie Hogg, advising students about the dangers of drug abuse and what steps they can take if they know someone who is taking drugs.

Red Ribbon Week was started as a tribute to DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, an 11-year veteran assigned to the Guadalajara, Mexico, office where he was on the trail of the country’s biggest marijuana and cocaine traffickers. In 1985, he was very close to unlocking a multi-billion dollar drug pipeline, according to the DEA website. He was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Mexican drug traffickers. Kiki’s death made many Americans realize the dangers of drugs and international scope of the drug trade.

The first Red Ribbon Week was coordinated in 1988 by the National Family Partnership with then-President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, as honorary chair persons.