ANTI-DRUG WALK LEADS BY EXAMPLE

Diana Lovejoy provided an example at Red Ribbon Drug Prevention Walk and Rally.

The 14-year-old painted faces and put the strings of red balloons into tiny
hands Sunday afternoon.

"There's some pressure," the Millard teen said. "But I know it's stupid, so
I don't mess with it."

The "it" is drug use. Lovejoy shows younger kids "it" is wrong just by
being at the event, said Susie Dugan, executive director of PRIDE Omaha.

"They're telling the little kids they care," she said. "We need to tell our
kids as many ways as we can."

Attended by a couple of hundred people, the walk and rally started and
ended at Heartland of America Park. It marks the start of Red Ribbon Month,
a drug-prevention campaign that began nationally in 1985 after a federal
agent was brutally murdered by drug traffickers.

Sunday's rally was sponsored by the Heartland Youth Initiative, a coalition
of local organizations dedicated to preventing drug use.

The afternoon was spirit-filled. A drum corps led with beats. Cheerleaders
chanted: "Drug free is the way to live our lives healthy!" Small children
marched in a circle to a tune about the "Smoke monster."

Kids pledged to not use tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or other dangerous drugs.

Adults promised to be role models.