DARE GRADUATION GOING BIG

One Ceremony For All Grads

It is graduation season for the local schools; kids are graduating from
pre-school, finishing elementary school and of course Howe Sound Secondary
School marked its graduation last week but this week one of the annual
graduation ceremonies is taking on a new format.

The RCMP is leading the format change because the graduation ceremony in
question is the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) graduation.

Traditionally, each school with a class of kids taking DARE training has
its own graduation celebration. This year, instead of holding a series of
individual ceremonies at each school, the DARE trainers decided to have one
large ceremony.

The ceremony is scheduled for Howe Sound Secondary School on Thursday (June
16) at 6 p.m.

Grade 5 students from Brackendale, Garibaldi Highlands, Mamquam,
Valleycliffe and Stawamus Elementary schools will get certificates of
graduation and DARE t-shirts.

There is a total of about 240 students graduating. Each student wrote an
essay about what they learned through DARE and the students with the best
essays will read their essay at the graduation ceremony.

Const. Roshan Pinto coordinates the DARE program in Squamish and he said
the change was made mainly to make the annual DARE graduation a larger event.

"By having a large ceremony we show the kids they are not in it by
themselves," said Pinto. "It makes it a larger deal."

Pinto, a former schoolteacher, said he feels the DARE program is effective
but he admits there is no data to support his belief.

"There are studies currently under way to track the progress of our DARE
grads," he said.

The DARE program is supported in part by the Squamish Breakfast Club and
the group is hosting a fundraising golf tournament for DARE.

The tournament is scheduled for June 14 at 1 p.m. with a dinner to follow.
The golfing is at Garibaldi Springs and the dinner is at Squamish Valley.

The cost to enter is $100 and organizer Dave Hildreth has full details. He
can be reached be sending an e-mail to david.r.hildreth@ clarica.com.