BOOKMARK ART SAYS NO TO DRUGS

Kenzie 12, wishes she could show her bookmark, decorated in
art saying "no" to smoking, to her grandmother, but sadly she added it
is too late as her grandmother has already passed away from cancer,
derived from smoking.

But, Kenzie said she hopes others in her family will pay attention to
her artistic statement before they too become ill from the effects of
smoking.

Kenzie was one of nine North Whidbey Middle School students who won
awards for the creative bookmarks they made as part of a school
contest. The contest was just one of the activities scheduled to
spread substance abuse awareness, for Red Ribbon Week.

Red Ribbon Week started in 1986 as a memorial for U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agent Enrique Camarena, who was killed by members of a
drug cartel when he was on a drug case in Mexico.

Usually the last full week in October, Red Ribbon Week is now a time
set aside to educate people on the cons of substance abuse and
addictions and the pros of a drug free life. It is a time to encourage
those trying to change and discourage those thinking of trying drugs.
And it is also a time of support and of remembering loved ones lost to
addictions.

Students created their bookmarks as an art project in Jon Aesoph's art
class. Sixth, 7th and 8th graders all made bookmarks for the contest,
and out of each grade, three students won.

"On the anti-drug portion," Aesoph said, "at this age, you can
actually talk to kids about it, and they'll listen."

He said for this project, he saw some students create original pieces
in the style of Japanese anime, street graffiti and other
stylistically street fashioned writing.

Nicole, 10, said she worked three days on her bookmark. She
wanted her bookmark to express how drugs erase a person's identity and
her focus was trying to tell her peers this through her art. For this,
she used a face of a girl and marked her out until she became only a
silhouette.

"I wanted to tell them, if you do drugs, bad things will happen to
you. You won't be able to understand clearly and once you start, you
won't be able to stop," she said.

Organized by members of the North Whidbey Middle School's Parent
Teacher Association and judged by Roosevelt Rumble, of Oak Harbor's
Boy's and Girl's Club, the contest had over a hundred
participants.

Kim Welch, member of the PTA, said the contest had good recognition
from Impaired Driving Impact Panel of Island County (IDIPIC), local
emergency response teams and the Boy's and Girl's Club. She said
throughout Red Ribbon Week, the school had presentations, speakers,
several contests and projects, and a display of information on
substance abuse, addictions and side effects, such as problems
substance abuse causes in home life and dealing with other people's
addictions, and incentives for living a drug free life, such as a
model of a smoker's lung.

Welch said the week's events had a good response and she hopes it
reached the kids, got the message across and causes some of them to
act on what they learned during Red Ribbon Week.