SOAKING IT ALL IN

Students at Roche Avenue Elementary School and at several Porterville
schools celebrated Red Ribbon Week with school-wide activities, games
and theme dress days to let everyone know they will continue to "just
say no" to drugs. On Thursday afternoon, dozens of children raced up
and down the Roche Avenue basketball courts in the "Wet Sponge Relay."
"They have to run down the court, dip their sponge in a bucket of
water and run back to squeeze the water into a cup," said teacher,
Guadalupe Acosta.

Groups of six jumped and cheered as teams rushed to be the first to
fill their small plastic cups to the brim.

"When you are running you breathe so hard," said student Savannah
Lopez. "But you have to run as fast as you can."

The swiftest in the school yard were rewarded with candy and were the
envy of wet classmates.

"I got all wet," Lopez. "When you squeeze the sponge you can feel it
leaking all over your hands."

Some students did not mind getting messy and kept their eye on the
prize.

"You can get wet, but you can get free candy if you win," said student
Ashley Stinson.

The relay was one of several activities organized to celebrate Red
Ribbon Week at Roche.

"We have been promoting Red Ribbon Week and drug prevention with
week-long games and fun things for the kids," said Acosta. "Today is
also 'wear red' day and yesterday we had three-legged races."

Red Ribbon Week is one of the largest and most well-known drug
prevention events in America. The U.S Drug Enforcement Administration
estimates around 80 million students across the nation participate in
Red Ribbon activities every year during the last week of October.