DRUG AWARENESS MESSAGE GIVEN TO YOUTH

Spelled forwards or backwards YADADAY is YADADAY.

The acronym for Youth Awareness of Drug Abuse Day was coined by the
youth it targets and made its first large-production appearance at
Wellington secondary school Friday.

The event was organized by Nanaimo Alcohol and Drug Action Coalition
and presented to Wellington's Grade 8 students.

YADADAY included guest speaker Brendan Granger who, following an
interactive DVD presentation about how he and his family dealt with
his recovery from drug dependency, gave a live, emotional
testimonial and answered questions about his experiences with drug
and alcohol addiction and the effect these had on his life.

Other on-stage performances included Students Working Against
Tobacco, a Vancouver break-dancing group with SWAT break-dancers
Ivan de Leon and Colin Trickey with hip hop singer Kia Kadiri.

"We're targeting the whole range of addictive substances that are
not natural to ingest," said Steve Arnett, chairman of NADAC and
executive director of Nanaimo Youth Services Association. "Anything
particularly called a gateway drug."

"Tobacco and then alcohol are the first gateway drugs for kids."

YADADAY targets Grade 8 to 10 students because their age group is
the most likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol.

The presentation also included pamphlets and other educational
materials and displays.

YADADAY was presented as a pilot at Wellington that organizers hope
can be repeated at other Nanaimo schools.

"Hopefully if this goes well, somebody in the community will come
forward with some money so we can put on another one," said Tony
White, formerly with the John Howard Society.

The material and performances presented are aimed at preventing drug
use and provide education about drugs to youth who have already
started experimenting with drugs.

"What we want to do is not give the negative message of no drugs, no
alcohol, no don't, because nobody listens," said Arnett. "If you say
to them, you've got some choices to make and here's some information
for you and - with the way we package the information - hopefully
they'll make some good choices."

Anyone who wants to donate money for future YADADAY presentations or
become involved in the project may contact Joanne Cooper at NADAC at 754-1266.