AREA KIDS SHOW OFF THEIR DRUG-FREE SIDE

PAWTUCKET -- Sometimes, a horrific act can leave a wonderful legacy.

When undercover Federal Drug Enforcement agent Enrique Camarena was
tortured and murdered by members of a Mexican drug cartel in 1986, no
one anticipated that Red Ribbon Week, the national anti-drug campaign
created in his memory, would achieve such overwhelming success.

Locally, the campaign is just hitting its stride.

The city has been observing national Red Ribbon Week since 1991, but
only in the last five years did interscholastic theatrical
competitions become its centerpiece.

Oct. 29 was the last day of Red Ribbon Week, and the date of its
pinnacle event -- the Red Ribbon Awards Ceremony.

Every year for the past five years, teams of students representing
every school in the district -- in elementary, junior high and high
school subcategories -- have used music, visual art, theater, poetry
and hip hop, to promote drug-abuse prevention.

Every year, competition organizers choose a theme, according to Diane
Dufresne, Director of the Pawtucket Substance Abuse Prevention Task
Force, which sponsors the event in cooperation with the Pawtucket
School Department.

Last year's theme was "Family Unity," but this year, in response to
all of the pre-election hullabaloo, the theme was: "Elect to be Drug
Free -- Vote for a Drug Free America."

"The children are asked to come up with a five-minute skit, in any
kind of media or art form they wish," said Dufresne. "Then the winning
teams in all three categories, from all participating schools, will
receive trophies."

A fourth trophy goes to the team with the most "school spirit," and
for the first time this year, its bestowal will have memorial
significance.

From this year on, the esteemed citation will be awarded in memory of
Woodlawn Administrator Sister Martha Serbst, a longtime Red Ribbon
Week supporter, who died unexpectedly last year.

The skits were performed at City Hall before a panel of judges and
local dignitaries - including Mayor James Doyle, City Administration
Director Harvey Goulet, and members of the City Council and School
Committee. Afterwards, the budding young artists were treated to
refreshments, constructive review and adulation.

This year the M. Virginia Cunningham School took elementary honors;
Charles Shea Senior High School beat out Tolman; and the Woodlawn
Catholic Regional School won the four-way junior high contest. Slater
Junior High School received the inaugural Martha Serbst Award.

Dufresne said the Woodlawn victory was no surprise: since the Red
Ribbon Week competitions began five years ago, Woodlawn has dominated
the junior high category with its creative "intensity," prodigious
execution and trademark originality.

Woodlawn eighth grade teacher Theresa Ducharme has more than a little
to do with her school's remarkable winning streak, but she'd never
admit it.

"I just have awesome children," the modest educator said recently, "We
have the best teen-agers in Pawtucket and Central Falls."

Two years ago Woodlawn students created a "living" Mt. Rushmore, in
which some "good" presidents had to convince two of their neighbors to
stop smoking and drinking lest the mountain "erode," Ducharme explained.

This year Ducharme's young thespians staged a presidential debate
between two fictional candidates, during which a gallery of notable
political figures, from Benjamin Franklin to Bill Clinton, asked the
candidates tough, drug-related questions. The skit's extensive cast of
characters, which included Mayor "Jimmy" Doyle and Governor "Donny"
Carcieri, were all portrayed as children.

Such ingenuity is par for the course, said Ducharme.

"These kids are excited about this whole program," she continued, "and
they get fired up, I think, because they have control over these
projects; they are in charge. After they presented a banner they made
to the mayor, some even wanted to start an extracurricular sewing
club. They have spent hours after school working on these
presentations, and I think a lot of them are doing it so they don't
let Sister Serbst' memory down. The students took her death hard, and
they wanted to do something nice for her."