BROOKINGS YOUTH ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN

Brookings will become the nation's first "Do Life Clean" zone, if a new
anti-drug initiative launched Tuesday night by the Brookings-Harbor Youth
Association is successful.

Actually, the campaign is more pro-clean living than it is anti-anything.

"Positive choices leave no room for substance abuse," is the campaign slogan.

The campaign material, designed by Viola's Photography Unplugged, shows
families getting literally dirty while living clean.

Images of families painting, washing cars, baking, doing automotive
maintenance, surfing and mountain biking show that life without drugs,
alcohol or tobacco can be more fun, even if it's messy.

The campaign launch at Kalmiopsis Elementary School was attended by nearly
every community and county leader. The real stars, however, were the teens.

"We're the reason you're here," said Whitney Keys and Kristie Winberg in
unison.

Winberg said she wants to be proud to live in Brookings, but has
experienced more pressure to make the wrong choices here than anywhere she
has lived.

"And I'm a military brat," she said.

Keys said she grew up in a Brookings where drugs were virtually unknown,
but now she worries about her sister.

"My little sister is growing up in a community that's not healthy for her,"
she said.

"I need you guys to live by example," she said to the adults.

"We are your future," said Winberg.

"We need you to help us," said Keys.

School district superintendent Chris Nichols backed up that plea for help
with statistics.

Brookings-Harbor High School has a 34 percent greater alcohol incidence
rate than the state average.

During the previous school year, four students were suspended for tobacco
use. "And they were only the ones who got caught," said Nichols.

Four more were expelled for bringing weapons to school, and one was
expelled for using marijuana.

In all, said Nichols, 16 percent of students were suspended or expelled
during the school year.

Fortunately, she said, there were no suspensions or expulsions at Azalea
Middle School or Kalmiopsis Elementary that year.

Nichols said when she was vice principal at Azalea, however, students were
found intoxicated, or possessing tobacco or marijuana.

Such problems, she said, often go with the territory in poor rural towns.

"Our per capita income is 34 percent less than the state average," she
said. "We live in a community of the working poor."

No matter what parents and teachers may say to students, said Nichols,
"They make choices with their friends."

A lot of unsupervised time and the wrong kind of friends can lead to
trouble, she said. Nichols said she often sees students that are a bad
influence on each other, in and out of school.

"They have a synergy that takes them in the wrong direction," she said.

To help fight the problems, said Nichols, the district has applied for a
Safe Schools grant. She knows more is needed.

"We often talk about what not do do, but we don't give them a replacement,"
she said.

That's where the Brookings-Harbor Youth Association and its Do Life Clean
campaign come in.

Association member Kathy Viola, whose photography and design work are world
famous, is determined to take the Do Life Clean campaign nationwide.

She wants the campaign to land Brookings on the "Today" show as a community
of proud people who are passionate about making positive choices.

She wants it because, frankly, she is tired of the community being seen by
some as a meth haven.

"Meth is death," she said.

It's not enough, however, to just tell children that. The Do Life Clean
campaign, she said, will offer events and activities that will blow the
pastime of substance abuse right out of the water.

Optimistic fantasy? The Do Life Clean movement already has a "poster group"
in "Mother of Pearl," a local band that just signed a recording contract
with Epic Records.

Band members Joey Johnson and Adam Rosenberg asked the Violas to shoot the
cover for their CD and agreed to help promote the Do Life Clean campaign.

Viola said she has connections with national magazine editors too. She
envisions events as wild as a Brookings version of "Fear Factor." To Viola,
living clean does not mean living bored.

Admission will be free for those wearing a Do Life Clean awareness band and
presenting a commitment card. The band and card cost only $1.

The wristband approach made millions of dollars for Lance Armstrong's
cause, said youth association president Renee Escobar. It ought to at least
cover costs here.

The association has 7,000 each of the plastic cards and wrist bands.
Escobar asked business owners and agency heads to sell them at their Azalea
Festival booths and workplaces.

The campaign's first task is to secure commitments from every organization,
business, club, team and agency in the area.

Then it will hold a contest to produce a design for a billboard on the
highway at the Winchuck River that will tell visitors they have entered a
Do Life Clean zone.

Meanwhile, association members, both students and adults, are brainstorming
the fun events, both major and minor.

When people are fully engaged in life, said association member Jerry
Jacopetti, they enjoy every moment of living, even the simple and small
parts of life.

Each Do Life Clean member and event, said Escobar, will promote the
positive effects of clean living, creating a ripple effect throughout the
community.

Viola sees not only parents helping children, but children affecting
substance-abusing parents.

"A lot of kids want out of that lifestyle," she said, "and parents miss a
lot when they are high and not engaged."

Viola encourages those growing up in Brookings to get out and see the world
after high school.

She wants Brookings to be such a safe and positive town, however, that the
young people will eventually return here to work and raise their own families.

"I don't want kids to be embarrassed about the place they came from," said
Viola. "I want them to leave for the right reasons, not because they are
afraid to be in Brookings-Harbor."

For more information, call the Brookings-Harbor Youth Association at (541)
661-2992. Local students will be designing a Website at www.dolifeclean.org.