D.A.R.E. TO SAY 'NO'

It's the icky stuff drugs do to your body that fifth-grader Sarah
Martinelli wants to avoid. And that's a choice the St. Joseph Catholic
School student is certain she'll keep making after graduating from the Drug
Abuse Resistance Education program Tuesday.

Martinelli is one of 42 students from St. Joseph and one of thousands in
Caddo and Bossier parishes who have graduated from the extended D.A.R.E.
program for fifth-graders since 1991. Students in kindergarten through
fourth grade are introduced to the topics with short visitations from the
officer-led program.

D.A.R.E. America is a national nonprofit organization that reaches more
than 36 million children each year across the United States and in 54
countries. While the national organization develops the curriculum, states
fund their D.A.R.E. programs independently. In Louisiana, a legislative
grant funds the parishes, with representatives from the sheriffs' offices
and police departments teaching the program.

"The national curriculum was shortened to 10 weeks this year, but I kept
our program to 15," said Deputy Carl Wilkinson, who spent 13 years as a
D.A.R.E. officer. "The new revised program also eliminated the lesson on
gangs but I felt it was important to keep in."

The curriculum is designed to help young people deal with peer pressure and
to find healthy alternatives to the violence, drugs and alcohol they may be
tempted by as they get older.

And it works, says Wilkinson, who estimates he's taught more then 30,000
students over the course of his D.A.R.E. years.

"I run across young people I've taught that are out of college and they
will come up and say thank you and tell me how successful they are," said
Wilkinson, who told his story about teaching WNBA star Alana Beard. "She
stood up in the third-grade class and said she wanted to be a professional
basketball player. To be honest I didn't think much of it and just smiled.
I taught her the next year and she said the same thing. I saw her two years
ago at Christmas. She came up and hugged me. She's still the same Alana
Beard. To my knowledge she hasn't touched a cigarette, drank a can of beer
or taken any kind of drugs. She's very focused on what she wants to do and
she did it."