2,100 HORRY STUDENTS IN D.A.R.E. GRADUATION

Alabama Theatre hosted 2,100 Horry County fifth-graders who celebrated
their graduation from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program
Friday morning.

The 17-week program is designed to keep students away from
recreational drugs, tobacco and alcohol.

"I can't tell you how many parents come up and tell me how much it
means to the children to have us there," said Horry County Pfc. Jae
Love Anderson, one of four Horry County police officers running the
D.A.R.E. program at 16 elementary schools.

The 20-year-old D.A.R.E. program has been offered to local students
through the Horry County Police Department since the early 1990s.

The D.A.R.E. program educates students about the short- and long-term
consequences of making bad choices and prepares them for peer
pressure. While data on the program's long-term benefits is elusive,
Horry County police Sgt. Robert J. Shelley, who heads the program,
says he considers D.A.R.E. a success if it helps even one or two kids
out of each class avoid trouble.

Featured speaker Cecil Chandler, from morning TV's "Cecil's World,"
told students, "I've seen young kids die from taking drugs."

He encouraged kids to talk to teachers and parents about what they see
going on. "It's not being a tattletale," he said.

Alabama Theatre headliners Kelly Cutts, Greg Rowles and Jeff Zona were
on hand to sing. A group of second-graders from Pee Dee Elementary
known as Cain's Cool Cuts performed their own song about saying no to
drugs.

"You get to see the kids actually learning," Horry County Pfc. Dana
Weaver said. "You don't realize how much impact you have until they
all come together for something like this."