TRUCE OFFERS DISCOUNTS FOR DRUG-FREE BEHAVIOR BY TEENS

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Chambersburg-area students who agree to voluntary drug
testing can get big discounts on cars, pizza and clothing.

TRUCE, Teens Resisting Unhealthy Choices Everyday, urges students in grades
7 through 12 in the Chambersburg Area School District to stay drug free by
offering them a card that entitles them to 10 percent to 20 percent
discounts and free items at more than 60 area merchants.

TRUCE is sponsored by the Greater Chambersburg Chamber Foundation and
modeled after a program in Little Rock, Ark.

The incentives from area business are what makes it work, said TRUCE
Coordinator Pat Massa.

Participating students will get a tamper-proof photo ID card good until
they graduate, refuse to take a test, or test positive for marijuana,
cocaine, amphetamines, opiates or alcohol.

About 1,400 students have signed up for the program, which is still in the
early stages.

Monday, more than 200 students at Chambersburg Area High School and about
600 eighth-graders at J. Frank Faust Middle School heard what TRUCE is all
about. Today, more than 600 Chambersburg Area Middle School seventh-graders
will get the pitch.

This year marks the first time that middle-school students will participate.

Massa said the numbers are encouraging.

"We are very excited. When we started the first year we were told if 5 to
10 percent sign up, that's a success," Massa said. At Faust, 25 percent of
students signed up the first year, as did 8 percent of high school students.

Jack Chambers, a motivational speaker who operates Creative Educational
Concepts out of Chester Springs, Pa., tried to pump up the students'
attitudes Monday before they were sent home with information on the TRUCE
program.

"There are four skills for your success in this building: Confidence,
communication, cooperation and leadership," he said.

With the help of nine volunteers, Chambers demonstrated how all four
qualities are essential by having them work together to spell out words
with their bodies.

The eighth-graders applauded as one of the volunteers dove into the
outstretched arms of his eight classmates and they caught him.

"What you saw by that demonstration was risk. There are two kinds of risk -
calculated and foolish," Chambers said.

"Be smart enough to know the difference between the two. If you don't know
the answer, than don't make the dive," he said.

Students need parental permission and have until Oct. 9 to sign up for the
TRUCE program.

Participants are selected at random by computer for drug testing throughout
the year.

Area businessman Charles Schlichter assured the students the drug testing
is confidential and that results will not be turned over to school
officials or police.

The results will only be given to the student, his or her parents and a
specially trained counselor who does not live or work in the Chambersburg
area," he said.