STUDENTS' DRUG-PREVENTION EFFORTS LAUDED AT CEREMONY

SOMERSET - Kayla Mack isn't shy about offering her opinion on illicit
drugs.

The Shade High School senior plays a star role in turning young people
away from drugs.

"I reach for the stars -- not drugs," Mack, 17, said. "I warn them
that drugs only interferes with their goals. What's more important,
achieving your dreams or getting high."

Mack received a Lion Scholarship Award on Friday for being the
outstanding Student Against Destructive Decisions. She plans on
attending the Conemaugh School of Nursing in Johnstown to become an
RN.

The award ceremony held at the Somerset County Courthouse was part of
a rally for Red Ribbon Week, an 18-year-old national drug prevention
effort.

Prizes and saving bonds were awarded to students from around Somerset
County for best posters, essays and SADD banners.

Shade High School Principal Joe Kimmel called Mack a leader at school
and in the community.

"She's dedicated, very passionate and certainly a role model for other
students," Kimmel said. "She cares about what's going on in school and
in the community."

Keynote speaker the Rev. Elisa A. Osman, pastor of
Lavansville-Bakersville Lutheran Parish, told how drugs impacted her
family when a cousin began partying in high school.

"He wasn't fun anymore," Osman said. "Everyone could tell there were
other things going on. It was like somebody else had come into his
body and was doing a very bad imitation of him."

Osman said she has not heard from her cousin in more than five
years.

"I don't know if he's living or dead," she said, "if he's safe or
living in the streets somewhere getting rained on and freezing.

"To tell you the truth, I think about him an awful lot. I miss him,"
Osman said. "When you get into drugs, it's not only about your life.
It hurts the people who love you, too."

Somerset County Commissioner Brad Cober announced that state Rep. Bob
Bastian, R-Somerset, was this year's distinguished citizen for his
work in the area and with the Red Ribbon program.

The red ribbon became an anti-drug symbol for the National Federation
of Parents for Drug Free Youth after the brutal murder of a U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration agent in Mexico in 1985.