SILLY SUITS, SERIOUS MESSAGE

Teens, even preteens, would rather not hear about the dangers of
drinking, drugs and smoking from an adult who is going to holler or
preach.

"They would rather hear about it from somebody like me," said Glenn
McCants, 17, a skinny guy in a silly suit and a bright-blue-and-white,
polka-dot top hat.

McCants is a part-time clown, one of nine in Community High School
District 94's In Touch CLOWN (Children Learn Other Ways Naturally)
Team, out to spread messages of good health and wise choices to kids
from elementary school to his own age.

"I like doing silly things. Everybody says I'm goofy. I should be on
the CLOWN Team, and so I am," McCants said. "I think what we're saying
is important, and when you put our message out in a fun way, the kids
hear it."

McCants and his teammates performed, then did face painting and made
balloon animals at West Chicago Middle School's recent Snowflake
program, a Saturday when about 85 middle school students came together
for discussion, games, theater, speakers and workshops on the problems
associated with growing up. The theme for the day was "Be the
Ringmaster of Your Life."

The CLOWN Team from the West Chicago high school has been to its
neighboring middle school before, and they will be back again. For 12
years, they have been using their silliness to get word out to the
children in the West Chicago schools, said Gail Aronoff, the high
school assistant principal who started the group.

Through the years, they have had anywhere from 5 to 25 high school
students join in. They have participated in Central DuPage Hospital
health fairs and become involved in American Cancer Society
anti-smoking campaigns. Funded by the state to involve older students
as mentors to the younger ones, they concentrate their work in the
schools.

The clowns write their own skits, rehearse and get together to discuss
the messages they want to send out. "The aim is to get discussion
going," said team leader and foreign language teacher Kristi Allen,
who once worked as a clown on mission trips to Brazil and Argentina.
"A lot of clowning works as an icebreaker to get kids' attention, but
you have to be careful how you present your message. It's a serious
message presented with humor, but not with so much humor as to make it
look appealing."

Four clowns performed in one classroom and five others in the class
next door during Snowflake. Their skits focused on self-esteem, saying
"no" and the danger of drinking and driving, the latter in preparation
for the future. Afterward, high school junior and veteran clown
Franchesca Smith asked the 15 students in the room, "What would you
have done?"

"You have to take a stand for yourself, and when you do that, you help
your friends too," answered one.

"I have had to deal with peer pressures before. It isn't easy,
especially when you're younger," Smith said. "I think it's important
for kids to hear teenagers saying this."

Bingo, say the middle school teachers, who see their students looking
up to the older teens.

"It's an uplifting, rewarding day for the high school students who
help," said Donna Catey, who works in the middle school alternative
education program and is in charge of Snowflake. "We've had a number
of helpers who have returned year after year to help."

Besides clowns, about 20 high school students were chosen to work as
team leaders at Snowflake.

"This especially helps the 8th graders," Catey said. "If they've met a
teenager who helped here, it's a connection they have when they go to
high school. If a teenager is for something and excited about it, our
students want to be too. They hear from these teens that it's OK not
to drink at parties, that you can still have fun and be accepted. That
makes a difference."

Freshman Ashley Stern, 15, said she joined the CLOWN Team because she
remembered when they came to her school last year. "You can't go out
as a teenager and not see it, kids smoking, kids drinking," she said.

Even at the elementary level, there is a need for the message to get
out, said West Chicago's Currier Elementary principal Vicky Zanillo.
Zanillo anticipates another clown visit this spring.

"We've always been real happy with the students from the high school,"
she said. "One of the things they talk to the younger students about
is how personalities change when people drink or use drugs. A nice
person can become a person who isn't so nice. Sometimes the skits are
very, very effective."

"These are high school kids who get a lot of good feedback from the
little things they do," said Aronoff, who stepped down as team leader
when she became assistant principal. "These are students with a
heartfelt need to help. They are always pretty altruistic kids. They
come to us with very little acting desire. They want to help others,
not to be on stage and become a star."

"I think kids start to see peer pressure at middle school age, but
when you get to high school it's a whole new world. Everybody talks
about parties," said McCants, who later took off the clown suit and
became a Snowflake team leader. "It takes a lot of self-esteem to do
what you think is right. You have to tell kids that if these people
are your friends, they'll listen to you. If they don't, well then,
they are not your friends. Stay with the close friends you trust.
Maybe one or two will stray off, but your good friends who care about
you will hang with you."