KIWANIS CLUB DROPS DONATIONS TO SIMI DARE PROGRAM

*Members are angry that DARE officials wanted them to use a more expensive
T-shirt maker.

SIMI VALLEY -- Reg Richardson sought out his son for the answer to a simple
question.

How far does a T-shirt go in the fight against drugs?

More specifically, was it worth $10,000 a year of his service club's money,
raised by selling hot dogs and other time-consuming activities, to make sure
every sixth-grader in Simi Valley's DARE program got a T-shirt?

As the city begins budget talks in the coming months, officials have said
they plan on continuing to fund the DARE program to a tune of $15,500 for
supplies and $248,400 for the salaries of three DARE officers at Simi Valley
schools.

Members of the Kiwanis Club in Simi Valley are questioning the program's
value based on their experience with the organization's strict T-shirt
vending rules.

Club members found out last year that they had to stop printing the T-shirts
locally or risk running afoul of DARE America Inc.'s trademark.

When they were told the money must go to a Culver City printer that charged
more money to print the shirts, the Kiwanis Club members decided they would
rather spend their money on some other charity.

"Board members questioned whether giving this to kids was the best use of
the money," Richardson said. "Does this do a lot of good?"

Almost every sixth-grader at every private and public school in Simi Valley
has gone through the DARE program since it made its way here in 1986,
officials said.

Representatives from the Simi Valley Police Department appreciated the huge
donation the T-shirts have represented, but they understand the situation.

"They've been very, very generous with us for years with the DARE program,"
Capt. Mark Layhew said of the Kiwanis Club of Simi Valley.

The Kiwanis Club of Simi Valley still supports the program, but in a
different way.

Until now, the Kiwanis contribution was the biggest one the local DARE
program receives.

So far, this fiscal year, which ends in June, the Kiwanis Club has given
$1,000 for shirts for the police department's Explorer program, and $400 to
put graphics on the new DARE van.

This fiscal year, which ends in June, the Police Department received $3,000
to fix up its new DARE van, $2,800 from a Kmart fund-raiser, $250 from the
business community, and just under $1,000 from the Simi Valley Police
Foundation.

Some Kiwanis Club members had been questioning the effectiveness of the DARE
program before the cost of printing the T-shirts became an issue.

Kiwanis Club members said they chose to end their relationship with the
organization after discovering that one of their members was not allowed to
print shirts for $3.70. DARE representatives said the local Kiwanis must use
the organization's official vendors at $2 more per shirt.

"I think overall there's some resistance or resentment among the Kiwanians,
that it's a program that is supposed to have community involvement," said
Jacquie Richardson, who served as president of the service club when the
issue came up last year. "But they insisted on using a high-priced vendor."

DARE America officials said they have the vendor rule in place to protect
the trademark, said Mark Stine, the director of marketing and licensing for
the nonprofit group.

"Thousands of communities have no problem with this and do this every year,"
Stine said "This has nothing to do with DARE being an evil monger. This has
to do with federal trademark laws."