DARE GRADUATION CEREMONY HELD AT WYNYARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Wynyard Advance Gazette -- Constable Allana Graham welcomed invited guests
to the DARE graduation ceremony held at Wynyard Elementary School on the
morning of June 10. This was Constable Graham's first time as an instructor
for the DARE program.

"Today's ceremony is an important part of the curriculum designed to let
the students show what they have learned and to acknowledge their
participation," said Constable Graham.

"DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It is a collaborative
effort by law enforcement, educators and the community to prevent drug
abuse and violence in children and youth. DARE helps students recognize and
resist the many pressures that influence them to experiment with drugs,
alcohol and violence," Constable Graham stated.

The DARE program focuses on feelings relating to self esteem, interpersonal
and communication skills, decision making and positive alternatives to drug
abuse behavior.

Lessons were held once a week for 45 minutes in Mrs. Tarasoff's grade 6
classroom for 17 weeks.

During each lesson, students participated in cooperative learning
activities designed to encourage them to overcome problems of major
importance and to learn how to deal with situations in a positive way.

The students had the opportunity to perform skits utilizing the values they
had learned during the program.

All of the skits created a scenario involving drugs, bullying and violence.

In skit number one, a male student is smoking pot in the principal's car.
Other students, friends of the pot smoker tried to persuade him not to
continue, he refuses to listen and gets "busted" by the RCMP. The students
then show the audience the positive outcome of taking the road that leads
to no drug use. The students end up being a good student with a future
bright and wide.

Dylan Hundstad read his essay aloud to the guests and received a medal for
doing a terrific job of explaining what DARE means to him. Kelsey Kowalyk
was also asked to read her essay.

Skit number 2 showed the audience what the students had learned in the
different ways to say no. A student didn't want to go to a party with her
friends, in an attempt to persuade their friend to go, they bully her, push
her around but she doesn't give in. She has decided that she will stay home
instead of going to the party, despite what her "friends" think of her.

Group three performance included a narrator who explained the actions of
the actors as they portrayed different ways that people bully . The last
skit showed a journalist who would lose his job if he didn't get one more
great story. As he was standing on a bridge, contemplating jumping off a
lawyer approached him . He explained to the journalist that he had lost
three cases that day and would like to jump off the bridge as well. As the
two men were about to jump they were interrupted by a young lady who
thought she had seen aliens, and a soccer player with one leg who had been
kicked off the team because of her disability. The journalist suggested
that they all jump off the bridge together on the count of three. On three
everyone jumped except the journalist who walked away happy because he had
just got the one great story he needed to keep his job. Judging by the
audience's laughter, the skit appealed to everyone's funny side.

The ceremony also included words of praise and wisdom from Principal
Fisher, and the Grade 6 teacher, Mrs. Edie Tarasoff.

Constable Graham thanked local businesses for their part in the DARE
program. These businesses include Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia,
Wynyard Legion, Peppertree Restaurant, Cornerstone Credit Union, Grummett
Motors, Wynyard and District Kinsmen, Wynyard Elementary School Council,
Wynyard Composite High School.

Devin Lunney and Brea Lowenberger were asked to join the grade 6 class
during the graduation.

Brea and Devin were recommended by their principal as positive role models
in the community. They spent an hour in the grade 6 class answering
student's questions and discussing the positive alternatives they have
chosen instead of getting involved in drugs and alcohol. The ceremony
concluded with an invitation for the grade 6 class to stay and have pizza
for lunch.