by Gwen Pearson

Red Ribbon Week is an annual drug prevention campaign, the largest in America. Many schools in the United States celebrate the week — this year, falling between the dates of Oct. 23-31 – as well as many other local organizations. Not only does Red Ribbon Week deal with drug use, but the parents who started the NFP, or the National Family Partnership, also want to spread knowledge on the effect of alcohol in teens.
“Red Ribbon Week is a perfect time to inform and remind people of the dangers of drug use,” senior Charity Ingle said. “Many people are unaware of just how harmful and dangerous drugs are, and Red Ribbon Week gives us another opportunity to influence people to make good choices in their lives. I think it’s important for us to be active in speaking out against drugs, especially during this national awareness week.”
Each year Red Ribbon Week has a theme. This year it was “Love yourself. Be drug free.” The theme for this year is in reference to how people harm their bodies if they put bad toxins into their body. To help promote the fight against substance abuse, PCM’s GEL, a group based on the premiss of drug prevention, passed out cards made up of a heart with this years theme, adding a Hershey’s kiss for good measure. Even the teachers got into it, playing a game of Jeopardy with their advisory students that was brought up by Casey McMurray, the counselor at the High School, just for the occasion.
“I think Red Ribbon Week is a good week to make sure that we’re drawing awareness to substance abuse issues, but it should be thought of all year around,” McMurray said.