STUDENT STOPS ALLEGED DRUG DEALER, WINS AWARD

PUNTA GORDA-- Ryan Allender took a chance when a classmate at Port
Charlotte High School offered him illegal prescription pills.

He could have taken the pills and simply thrown them out, allowing the
classmate to continue dealing drugs.

Instead, Allender took the road that many 16-year-olds would not have the
guts to do. He turned the dealer in.

For his role in the halting of drug sale and use amongst juveniles,
Allender won the "Do the Right Thing" award for February at Punta Gorda
City Hall on Thursday.

Bev Young, Allender's aunt, said she was most proud that her nephew stood
up for what was right even though it is sometimes hard to do in high school.

"We're very proud," Young said. "I think it's very big of him."

It all started when a female classmate gave Allender, a 10th-grader, and
his friend oxycodone pills while in school. Allender immediately went to
his teacher and told of the girl selling drugs.

"I was worried she was giving more out," he said. "I was worried about the
students who were doing (the drugs)."

The girl, although now back in school, was arrested by Charlotte County
Sheriff's Office deputies and taken out of school. Allender said, at first,
many students thought what he did was wrong.

"They thought I was a narc," he said.

Despite the minor backlash he received, Allender said he would definitely
do the same thing if he had to do it over again.

"It was pretty tough," he said. "I was just nervous about what all my
friends think at the time."

Other nominees included:

* James DeGaeta, an 18-year-old 12th-grader at Charlotte High School, who
helped clear away debris from homes in his neighborhood after Hurricane
Charley.

* Baily Beckham, a 15-year-old ninth-grader at PCHS, who worked on
Charlotte schools' employees' houses after Charley.

* Julie Sherfey, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Murdock Middle School, who
raised $750 by herself for a National Alliance for Autism Research walk-a-thon.

* Rebecca Morrello, an 8-year-old second-grader at Meadow Park Elementary,
who raised $66 for tsunami victims.

The program is sponsored by the Punta Gorda Police Department.