CROSSVILLE DARE GRADUATES ARE RECOGNIZED

The Crossville Attendance Center DARE classes were recognized in a special
graduation ceremony Thursday afternoon.

The DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) classes are part of the
fifth grade curriculum and taught by Grayville Police Officer and White
County DARE Officer Doug Phillips.

The ceremony opened with praise from Crossville Attendance Center Principal
Pay Myers. She thanked the students for their outstanding display of the
traits taught in the Character Education program being conducted in all of
the attendance centers in the Carmi-White County School District. Myers
also thanked the group of parents that attended Thursday's ceremony.

Officer Phillips then introduced a number of dignitaries including, White
County State's Attorney Kerry Sutton, White County Sheriff Doug Maier,
Carmi Chief of Police Mike Thomas, White County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Byrd
Huber and Crossville Police Officer Scott Cantrell.

Phillips explained the DARE course is ten-weeks long and the students are
taught the eight different ways to say no and learn how to deal with peer
pressure, while learning about the dangers of substance abuse and violence.

Phillips then introduced the guest speaker, Kent Wheeler, the special
project coordinator for the Regional Office of Education. Wheeler has been
the guest speaker for the Crossville DARE graduation for the past three years.

"Your success in life is based on what you learned the past 10 weeks," said
Wheeler, who has been involved in local education for over 20 years. He
told the students about the success stories of past students, who went on
to become doctors, lawyers, NASA engineers and businessmen and women. He
also related the story of a student who ended up in prison because of
alcohol abuse.

"What Officer Doug has been doing will enable you to say no," said Wheeler.
"He has taught you eight ways to say no. Next year and in the years to
come, you will deal with more peer pressure and you will have to make the
right choices and decisions."

Wheeler said normally he reminds DARE students of his definition of the
DARE acronym.

"D is for discipline, A is for attitude, R is for respect and E is for
example," explained Wheeler. "But today, I want to concentrate on two Ds."

He continued explaining to the students that defense and determination were
two Ds the students needed to remember.

"Dare to be different," said Wheeler. "Dare to be determined to stay off
drugs."

Following Wheeler's speech, the graduating fifth grade students were
presented certificates of achievement and a special DARE pin.

The DARE essay winners were then introduced by Phillips, who said it was a
very difficult decision to decide the top essays. A job he said he has help
with from other local law enforcement personnel.

Hailey Lamp, Lana Stone, Cole Fechtig and Tessie Nelson were recognized as
the top essay writers. The essay winners received a number of prizes
including $25.

Phillips then presented the I Dare You Awards to John Feldman, Loren
Minnick, Molly Belford and Austin Winters.

The annual Randy Harris Citizenship Awards were presented by Sheriff Doug
Maier, who explained the awards were presented by the local Fraternal Order
of Police and were in honor of Harris, a former local law enforcement
agent, who was killed in an automobile accident.

This year's Citizenship Awards were presented to Aisha Saqib and Ian Kendricks.

Myers closed the ceremony related a conversation with a mother of a
Crossville student, who had completed the DARE program, when she was in
school. Myers said the mother said the program had helped her make the
right choices in life.

"If just one person is influenced to make the right decisions in life
because of DARE," said Myers. "Then that is reason enough to have DARE."

She thanked the students, staff and parents for helping make the program
successful.