NORTHWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT WINS STATE RED RIBBON COMPETITION

TAYLORS - Most of the grown-ups knew what was coming, but the kids had only
a clue.

The sixth-grade class at Northwood Middle School had just heard a
presentation on Red Ribbon Week on Wednesday morning when the school's
principal, Richard Griffin, called one of their own to the stage.

Griffin told 11-year-old Bashia Gandy and her peers that a poster she had
created for Red Ribbon Week had been chosen as the best in South Carolina.
"I knew something was going on, but not that I was going to get an award,"
Bashia said.

It comes with a $100 check.

"This is real special to me because I had never received anything like this
before," she said.

Bashia's mother, Angela Cash, learned about the school presentation Tuesday
and was at the school to celebrate the moment with her daughter.

"I'm very proud of her," Cash said. "She worked very hard on the poster.
She was her own inspiration."

Thousands of students from across the state submit poster entries each year
as part of the annual Red Ribbon Celebration. Schools and communities hold
events during October to increase awareness of the issues surrounding
substance abuse and to encourage youths to choose a healthy, drug-free
lifestyle.

Bashia's poster depicts a tractor-trailer rig with a stack of library books
painted on the side. Each book has a letter spelling out the word "courage."

The arts are a central element in the Gandy house. Brashia's mother is a
graduate of the Art Institute of Atlanta, and her father plays piano for
their church and teaches private lessons.

"(Brashia) always has a Crayon in her hand," Benny Gandy said. "She's
always asking me to teach her songs I play at church. She's very talented."

The Red Ribbon Celebration is held in honor of a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration agent who was killed while working for the DEA in Mexico in
1985.

John Lasne, who spoke to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at the
Northwood event, wrote a book titled The Red Ribbon that was inspired by
the Red Ribbon Celebration and based on an original story by Lasne.

Lasne, a South Carolina native and Taylors resident, has traveled across
the country speaking at schools and elsewhere about the book and his
personal experiences.