DRUG-FREE IS KEY TO LIFE

Jeff Hicks Receives Award Honoring Brother's Friend

In his application, Jeff Hicks summed up the significance of the Whitney
Michelle Kees Drug-Free Youth Award:

"My brother was very good friends with Whitney," wrote Hicks, a senior at
Shaw High School. "After her death, my brother went through an extended
battle with depression. After seeing my brother experience this, I never
wanted to cause anyone this much pain."

As a result, Hicks caused his family and friends plenty of joy Tuesday,
when he received the eighth annual Kees Award and a $500 check during the
11th annual Drug-Free You and Me Conference at driver in 1993. She was a
popular student involved in anti-drug and other activities in school,
church and the community. The award was established to honor her memory and
motivate other Columbus teens to follow her example.

The award is given to a drug-free Muscogee County School District senior
who helps others lead drug-free lives. The award's nine-member selection
committee considers the applicant's activities, academic achievement and
personal character. Three letters of recommendation are required, one each
from a peer, teacher and another adult.

The award is presented each year at the Drug-Free You and Me Conference, so
local seventh-graders can see the opportunity for positive recognition of
students who make the choice to not use alcohol and other drugs. More than
3,000 seventh-graders from Muscogee County public and private schools, Fort
Benning, and Mother Mary Mission School in Phenix City, are scheduled to
attend the conference, which runs through Thursday.

Motivational speakers and music at the conference are designed to get the
students' attention and send them a drug-free message. The school district
and business partners sponsor the conference.

Hicks was named the Kees Award winner out of 10 applicants.

"All the applications were so outstanding this year," said the selection
committee's chairman, Ron Hinze, who runs the Businesses Against Drugs
committee for the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce. "It makes you feel
so good that we have these kids in our community. I don't know how they do
all that they do."