D.A.R.E. PROGRAM TO SPEND A WEEK ON MARCO

From Monday, June 14 through Friday, June 18, the Florida D.A.R.E.
Officers Association is holding their annual conference at the Marco Island
Hilton. They are also planning a parade and community night event on Tuesday.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program is a unique drug
education program structured to give children the best possible preparation
to resist drugs and violence as they enter adolescence. The program has
proven so successful that it is now taught in every state and several
foreign countries. The U.S. Department of Defense has authorized the
D.A.R.E. program to be taught on military bases worldwide for dependents of
service personnel.

On Tuesday, June 15 at 6:30 p.m., D.A.R.E. is sponsoring a community night
event at Mackle Park to raise the awareness of the dangers of drug abuse.
All community members are invited, with special emphasis on children,
teenagers, and parents. The D.A.R.E officers will have a collector car show
at the park and they will be available to answer any questions regarding
drug abuse resistance education.

Marco Island Police officers will be on hand to meet with the children and
their parents.

Food and beverage, sponsored by the Marco Island Kiwanis, will be available
for purchase.

Marco Island Fire Fighters and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
members will be preparing the hot dogs.

Musical entertainment will also be provided at the park.

"Be a good leader, stay In school, stay focused never give up! Stay off
drugs, make good choices," said MC Cookie. "Violence can hurt people but
worse it even can kill people, hands are for helping not for hurting. We
all live in this world together, therefor we need to all get along no
matter what color or religion we may be."

MC Cookie is a teenage rapper who will headline the musical entertainment
at Mackle Park on Tuesday Night, as part of the D.A.R.E. Program.

Just prior to the start of the event, the D.A.R.E officers will gather in
the parking lot of the Hilton hotel with their collector cars and there
will be a short parade from the Marco Island Hilton hotel to Mackle Park.
Any community members with collector vehicles that want to join in the
parade and car show are welcome.

For additional information, call Sergeant Dennis Perry of the Collier
County Sheriff's Office, Youth Relations Bureau, at 793-9260.

The D.A.R.E. program is taught to children in the last year of elementary
school, either the fifth-or sixth-grade, depending on the school system. In
Collier County, all public, private, and parochial school fifth-grade
children are offered the program, presented by specially trained uniformed
deputies of the Collier County Sheriff Office's Youth Relations Bureau to
all participating schools in the county except those within the city limits
of Naples. The Naples Police and Emergency Services Department serve those
schools.

The classroom teacher is present during the classes and participates in the
instructional activities.

The D.A.R.E program is taught during regular school hours for 10 to 17
weeks, with classes meeting once per week. Each class lasts between 45
minutes to one hour.

The State of Florida, like most states, requires school systems to provide
drug education to all students. The D.A.R.E. program was developed to
fulfill these requirements with the most effective and efficient education
possible. The program utilizes lectures, questions and answers, and role
playing activities to teach lessons that focus on the decision making
process we all must learn and how each individual must consider the
consequences of any choices made. Students learn how to handle the very
real presence of peer pressure, and how to improve their self-esteem so
they are better able to make positive choices for themselves. This
interactive program is very effective in giving children the tools they
will need to resist the pressures and temptations to experiment with drugs.