FAMILY HONORS SPIRIT OF THEIR LATE DAUGHTER

NORTHBOROUGH -- A Northborough family is giving the Police
Department's anti-drug program a boost this year with a contribution
in memory of their daughter, who died of a brain aneurysm in 2004.

Judy and John Oakes dropped off a check for $500 to the Northborough
Police Department's D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
program last Wednesday.

The Oakes made the donation in memory of their daughter Sara, who
died at age 11 in January 2004. Sara had been a student at Zeh
Elementary School and had participated in the D.A.R.E. program, her
mother said.

Sara's younger sister, Emily, a fifth-grader at Zeh School, recently
finished the D.A.R.E. program.

"I'm a big proponent of kids learning to make good choices for their
bodies and minds," Judy Oakes said. "And Sara loved the D.A.R.E.
program so much."

The Northborough mom said it's important for parents to begin
educating their children early on about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

"I think you need to start early, in the fifth grade, it's a
wonderful program," she said. "Parents need to continue talking to
children at any point (they) feel necessary about the dangers of
drugs and alcohol and making good choices."

Emily, 11, said the program helped teach her, "how to make good
choices. I learned that drugs and alcohol and smoking is bad for your body."

Northborough Police Chief Mark Leahy said the $500 donation will go
toward paying for workbooks, T-shirts and graduation certificates for
the students.

"It helps a lot," he said of the Oakes family donation.

The D.A.R.E. program costs about $4,000 a year to run and is funded
100 percent by donations, Leahy said. It's offered to fifth-graders
in four Northborough public schools and one parochial school and
taught by one of the Police Department's seven certified D.A.R.E.
instructors, he said.

"It teaches kids how to avoid drugs, alcohol and violence, how to
deal with peer pressure and it builds relationships between police
officers and the community's children," Leahy said.