WEED AND SEED OFFERS DRUG PREVENTION CAMP TO YOUTH

Swimming lessons and other outdoor activities are not common methods
of keeping children off drugs. Neither is visiting a U.S. Navy station.

But that's exactly the approach Cameron County's Weed and Seed
officials are taking with its free "Drug Education for Youth" summer
camp.

DEFY, which will be held July 21-25 at the Kingsville naval training
station, is sponsored for the third straight year by the U.S.
Department of Justice's Operation Weed and Seed, the Southern
District's U.S. Attorney's Office, and the U.S Department of Navy.

"To participate in the summer camp we're accepting applications
for children between ages 9 to 12 years old and only 40 children can
participate," said Weed and Seed Coordinator Elizabeth Limon Garza,
whose organization is a federally funded program aimed at preventing
crime and supporting community projects.

Children participating in DEFY must live in the Southmost area
"because the Weed and Seed program was designed to cover this part of
the city," Limon said.

DEFY started about 10 years ago, but it wasn't until 1999 that the
Department of Justice established the camp for Brownsville children,
program officials said.

"The program was started in 1992 by the U.S. Navy for family members
of Navy personnel during the summer," Limon said.

The summer camp is Phase I of the DEFY program. Limon describes it as
an intensive eight-day summer camp that promotes positive self-images,
physical fitness, gang, and drug prevention classes. It also increases
skills in interpersonal communication, conflict resolution and goal
setting.

"We want to provide to the kids the important tools they need to
resist drugs, gangs and alcohol throughout the summer camp," she said.

Phase II is a school mentoring program, which matches adult volunteers
and those children that participated in the summer camp, Limon said.

It takes place throughout the school year.

"The focus of this phase is to reinforce the themes introduced in
summer camp. The mentors and youth will meet for a minimum of four
hours a month for workshops, field trips and special events," she said.

"The discipline Marines have and their lifestyle and good manners make
them excellent adults for the kids to look up to." For more
information call at 548-7048.