RED RIBBONS A DRUG-FREE RALLYING CALL

They will appear on car antennas, school fences and pinned to the shirts of
students in and around Santa Barbara this week, but the coordinators of Red
Ribbon Week hope that people will stop and think about what that piece of
red means.

The red ribbons symbolize a commitment to be "drug-free and proud,''
according to organizers. They honor a drug enforcement officer killed in the
line of duty in 1985. Since then, students and anti-drug and alcohol
organizations nationwide have hosted Red Ribbon Week, along with events
designed to encourage a drug-free lifestyle. School programs continue the
push after the ribbons are gone.

"It's a full, holistic approach," said Jenna Hayden, special events and
media coordinator for Fighting Back, the group sponsoring the event. "One of
the important things about Red Ribbon Week is that it's more than just
handing a kid a ribbon. That's not going to make a lifestyle change if they
are already taking drugs."

A poster contest is the kick-off to the week, which officially starts
Saturday and wraps up Oct. 30 with an evening of swing dancing,
skateboarding and a haunted house at Ortega Park, the Downtown Carrillo
Recreation Gymnasium and BeBop Burgers. Each site will have its own theme.

The annual Red Ribbon car wash fund-raiser sponsored by Friday Night Live
and Club Live will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Fairview
Center, Santa Barbara High School, Bodekker Chevron and El Puente School.
The clubs are high school and junior high school organizations that promote
drug prevention and sober activity on campuses nationwide. Students wash
cars and tie red ribbons onto the antennas; for cars it's $5, $7 for trucks.

Lindsay Bailey, coordinator of the clubs hopes to have a lot of helping
hands volunteer from each of 11 Santa Barbara campuses participating in this
year's car wash.

"I'm hoping that we'll have 20 kids from each school at the five different
car wash sites. Thirty to 40 kids at each site would be great," Bailey said,
adding that Club Live's junior high school meetings can sometimes draw about
100 students.

And to show that a drug-free lifestyle is not just for children, a Red
Ribbon luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the
Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort. The guest speaker at this year's luncheon
will be Sparky Anderson, past manager for the Cincinnati Reds. The luncheon
raises funds through an auction coordinated by seven South Coast Rotary
Clubs, according to Hayden.

This year's Red Ribbon campaign, Hayden said, will focus more on adult drug
prevention education by launching an advertising campaign aimed at
encouraging parents to be good role models. The campaign, sponsored by the
Rotary Clubs and coordinated by Fighting Back, will include banners and
flags along State Street.