MAKING A DIFFERENCE MEANS BEING COMMITTED

The age of 10 was a seminal year in the making of Franklin patrolman
William Piwtoratsky. In those 12 months, he lost his father to a
drunken driver but also realized that his mission in life was to
become a policeman.

Now, at 41, those events have conspired to place Piwtoratsky at the
front of the classroom, where as the township's Drug Abuse Resistance
Education officer he spends much of his energies preaching the dangers
of drug and alcohol abuse.

It isn't lost on Piwtoratsky, either, that the fifth-graders he
counsels are nearly the same age as he was when he realized his calling.

The lessons he teaches? For the kids, a lot of it is about coping with
peer pressure -- to learn to stand up for one's self, to be confident,
to be independent of thought, to be smart, to avoid what will hurt
you. And though he doesn't say it, there's a lesson for adults as
well: Sometimes the most wrenching personal losses lead to the most
gratifying personal gains.

"I think of myself when I was in fifth grade and know you can make a
difference in a kid's life," Piwtoratsky told the Home News Tribune.

That about says it all.

To Piwtoratsky, and to all of the other D.A.R.E. officers who make a
difference in the lives of thousands of children, this page salutes
you.