WHO SAYS DARE DOESN'T WORK?

On Friday, June 16, 2000, there was an event at the Verona Community
Pool. It was the annual fifth grade D.A.R.E Graduation / Pool Party.
There were over 500 people in attendance. The weather was perfect, the
pool water was cool and refreshing, the DJ was excellent and except
for a slight glitch with the hot dog cart, the food and beverages were
perfect also.

A lot of naysayers will tell you that D.A.R.E. doesn't work. I beg to
differ with them on several points. First of all, a main premise of
the D.A.R.E. program is for school children to see a uniformed police
officer in a non-confrontational classroom setting. In more urban
areas, it may well be the first time a child sees a police officer
where there isn't some sort of trouble. Not only has the Verona
D.A.R.E. program given the children an opportunity to see a uniformed
officer in the classroom, but at the pool party, they even got to see
another side of the police. A half dozen officers gave up their Friday
evening and volunteered to man the BBQ grill and hot dog cart. This
freed up the parents who volunteered to work at the party a chance to
spend the evening with their families.

Some say that a police officer can't do as good a job teaching as a
professional educator. If they are talking strictly about academics,
they are absolutely right. But what about life experiences? Colleges
even offer credits for life experiences now. To a kid who has never
seen a marijuana cigarette, having a professional educator explain why
it is so dangerous to smoke pot can sound like abstract terms. Don't
get me wrong, the teachers do a wonderful job. What I'm saying is that
the police add another dimension to the learning experience. The
teachers stay in the classroom during the D.A.R.E. lesson so that they
can reinforce the lesson during other parts of the school day.

This year's program saw an unusual occurrence. Due to changes in the
MAC grant that funds the D.A.R.E. program, we ran short of money. This
wasn't due to poor book keeping. In the past year the program was expanded.

D.A.R.E. is now taught in Kindergarten, second, fifth, and seventh
grades. Some changes in the MAC grant mandates left us with two
choices. We could either scale back the program or hope for more
funding next year, or we could go outside the grant and look for
funding for an event like the graduation pool party. I went to the
Verona PBA Local #72 and told them of the predicament. When I told
them how much money would be needed, their reply was "are you sure
that will be enough?" Thank you, Verona PBA Local #72 for your
generosity and thank you to the officers that came and volunteered
their time and thank you to the Verona Junior Women's club for making
all those wonderful cupcakes.