YOUTH DONATES TIP MONEY TO DARE PROGRAM

Thatcher High School senior Mary Mendez saved money earned from her
job as a hostess for Bricks restaurant and donated $500 to the Drug
Abuse Resistance Education program May 18.

Mendez said she was motivated to help the DARE program because she
was helped by it after being exposed to drug abuse by a family member
at an early age.

"The DARE program helped me realize that wasn't right," she said. "I
have a younger brother and a younger sister, and I just wanted the
DARE program to be around for all the kids."

It took Mendez more than a month to save the money.

Her actions inspired her father's girlfriend, Araunah Crotts, manager
of the Red Lamp mobile home park, to give $100 toward Mendez's donation.

"I think it's really good that she wanted to do it," Crotts said.
"There's so much stuff kids can get wrapped up in these days; I think
it really helps to have the program there for them. If it just
touches one life, it still makes a big difference."

Thatcher Police DARE officer Everett Cauthen accepted the $500
donation on behalf of the DARE program. Cauthen has been the DARE
officer for Thatcher for 12 years. He said Thatcher High School was
the only school in the Valley to have a DARE officer visit last year.

According to the official DARE Web site, its old-style approach to
drug prevention in which an officer stands behind a podium and
lectures to students is no longer a part of its curriculum. Now DARE
officers are trained as "coaches" to support kids who are using
research-based refusal strategies in high-stakes, peer-pressure
environments.

New advances allow the children to see brain images of how substances
diminish mental activity, emotions, coordination and movement. Mock
courtroom exercises teach the social and legal consequences of drug
use and violence.

Mendez credits the DARE program and officers for helping mold her
into the person she has become.

She graduated from Thatcher on Friday and plans to attend the nursing
school at Eastern Arizona College.

"I've already started taking classes through the college, and I'll
probably start the nursing program in August," she said.