GIRLS PLEDGE TO REMAIN DRUG-FREE

Approximately 30 girls at Baskerville Elementary became members Friday of a
statewide initiative to keep young women drug-free.

Rich Boswell, director of Partnership for a Drug-Free North Carolina, led
the students in a pledge promising they would abstain from drug, alcohol
and tobacco use.

"This is the time when young ladies form opinions of themselves," Boswell
said. "What I hope is that the message I take to different schools makes
people think three, four or five times when they have to make these decisions."

The students joining the Girl Power! initiative recited a pledge and
received T-shirts in the assembly, watched by fellow students.

"It's a little bit hard to go back on a promise when everybody knows about
it," Boswell said as the girls lined up in front of their classmates.

The girls pledged to remain drug-free, but they also committed to taking
care of their minds and bodies, excelling at home and at school and
remaining confident in their abilities.

Boswell said the Girl Power! initiative became statewide in North Carolina
in 1997 and is the only statewide program in the national initiative.

He said schools, churches and other community-based organizations express
interest in offering the program to young girls to get them started on a
path to personal growth.

"Any time we have the opportunity to let the girls know the leadership
supports them, we take it," Boswell said.

He said the girls recognized at Baskerville Friday will be honored
nationally on the organization's Web site, which will feature information
on the individual members of Girl Power! and detail their awards ceremony.

Boswell told the other Baskerville students at the assembly that even
though the presentation was honoring the achievements of the Girl Power!
members, each child in the room had the ability to make a similar pledge.

"It's a message we all need to carry with us," said Baskerville school
counselor Mary Hinton, who brought the program to the school through
networking. "The program has benefits to all children in the long-run."

Boswell said he travels across the state to educate students on prevention
and to create ideas for gender-specific prevention programming.

Baskerville principal Victor Ward said Friday's presentation hopefully
spurred interest in the other students to want to take a personal pledge of
their own.

"Another reason I like the program is that it's designed to emphasize
education skills including academic, arts and sports," Ward said.

He said the program would hopefully return to Baskerville and gather more
student members of Girl Power, and to expand to include a program for male
students.

"We want a Boy Power!," Ward said.

"It's coming," Boswell said.