DARE PROGRAM BEING WELL RECEIVED BY COMMUNITY

FUN with a serious message. On June 15 at Sacred Heart School and
Sioux Mountain Public School Grade 6 students taking part in DARE
(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) graduated from the program before a
gym full of family members, friends, teachers and sponsors of the program.

Conducted by Sioux Lookout OPP Community Services Officer Mark Gaudet,
the 10-class program taught students the dangers of drugs, alcohol,
tobacco, peer pressure and violence and equipped them with the skills
to make smart choices and stay safe and healthy.

Gaudet welcomed everyone to the graduation ceremony, then students
thanked school principals and program sponsors for supporting the program.

Some students performed skits demonstrating situations they could find
themselves in, such as being pressured to smoke or drink, and how they
DARE program being well received by community would make smart choices
in handling the pressure and saying no.

At the end of the program students wrote essays about what they
learned from the program and the impact it has had on their lives.

Gaudet picked a few essays at random and the student composers read
them before those assembled.

Gaudet said there were a lot of good essays this year, the second year
the DARE program has been held in Sioux Lookout.

Some students who Gaudet felt had written exceptional essays were
honoured before their peers.

Students then received their DARE certificates and T-shirts amid
applause from all gathered.

Sacred Heart School Grade 6 teacher Kristi Hildebrand spoke Gaudet's
praises, stating he had a great rapport with students and the program
was excellent.

Abrielle Tempeny from SMPS stated of the program, "Awesome. I learned
that I should not do drugs.

I could get arrested or die."

Kimberly Gagnon from SHS said, "Everything that DARE taught me will
help me in my decision not to do drugs and stuff."

SMPS student Nikki McNear added, "It was really fun and cool and made
learning about drugs and alcohol and stuff cool."

She said it is important for the program to be taught to people her
age. "A lot of advertising and stuff is aimed at kids and DARE teaches
us how to be safe and have fun."

"We arm them with the facts, then we let them go from there," Gaudet
said.

Rather than simply telling young people that drugs and alcohol and
tobacco are bad and they shouldn't do them, the program also teaches
students about why the substances are dangerous and what they can do
to their bodies and gives them statistics.

"Basically, we start off giving them facts to do with alcohol and
drugs and tobacco. Once they have the facts we build on that and give
them a skill set of ways to be in charge and ways to say no and I try
to build their confidence and teach them confident response styles and
what to do if they get into situations," Gaudet said. "These things
are everywhere in today's society, in movies, magazines, music,
Internet. A lot of them didn't know that the people that pay for
advertising are the people that own the product and they don't realize
that a lot of alcohol and tobacco ads are aimed at young teens. That's
why they try to make it cool. That's what's nice about the DARE
program. They stay current and that's why it's such a good program and
it's very structured as well."

Another skill students learned in the program is responsibility. They
achieved that by looking after the program's mascot, a stuffed lion
named Daren.

"At the beginning of each class I say, who wants Daren today and all
of them put up their hands. They all want to look after Daren for the
day, but with that are rules.

One is that you do not leave Daren unattended. The other is that you
do not abuse Daren and they'll catch each other if someone is leaving
Daren unattended and it never happens.

If they go to the washroom they have someone look after Daren and they
don't realize what they're learning by taking care of someone like
that."

Overall, Gaudet feels the DARE program is a vast improvement over the
VIP (Values, Influences and Peers) program it replaced. "It's a two
week course and they're very serious.

I had homework every night and I didn't get to bed until 11 o'clock
they make sure you are capable of teaching this program."

Gaudet was overwhelmed by the number of people who attended this
year's DARE graduation and thinks the program is having a ripple
effect throughout the community.

Major sponsors of the program this year who were recognized at the
graduation were Johnny's Fresh Market, Tom Nebbs and Home Hardware,
and the Sioux Lookout Lions Club. Gaudet also recognized the Sioux
Lookout and Hudson Community Policing Committee without which the
program would not have gotten off the ground.

"They're the ones that said, lets get it done, and what happened was
in the first year they put up the money (for Gaudet's training) and it
turns out the OPP ended up covering the cost of the program to get me
trained so that was great and then after that they also bought the
laptop and the projector, and gave some seed money to the program to
get it started, so without the CPC we wouldn't even have DARE in the
community."

Gaudet has also been teaching a program similar to DARE to Grade 10
students at Queen Elizabeth District High School and thanked Canada
Brokerlink for funding the equipment he uses in the program and to
educate the public.

The equipment includes beer goggles and an intoxiclock which shows how
long it takes for alcohol to leave a person's system.

He is excited about the possibility of expanding the program to Grade
3 and Grade 8 students. "The Salvation Army has come on board and
they've pledged to sponsor another officer to be trained in the fall
so that's going to be great. This way we're getting them (students) at
all the pivotal years in their lives Grade 3 because they're at the
age where they can comprehend and know what's going on. Six is puberty
stage.

It's a big time in their lives.

Grade 8 is the year before they get into high school where there are
going to be all kinds of different pressures and Grade 10 is just
before they get their licences so those are four pivotal years in a
young person's life."