LINTON POLICE, STUDENTS CELEBRATE DARE PROGRAM

Thursday night was an evening of celebration as this year's
Linton-Stockton Elementary fifth-graders became the school's first to
graduate from the DARE - Drug Awareness Resistance and Education -
program.

Linton Police Department officer Debbie McDonald, who spent 13 weeks
teaching the DARE program to Linton-Stockton fifth-graders, said 117
students completed the program and graduated.

To graduate from the program, McDonald said, the students had to write
a DARE report. Every student completed the report, she said.

In the report, students had to write about their DARE experience -
what they learned, what was the personal topic to them, what they got
the most out of during the 13-week course.

"Some of them made you cry," McDonald said of the reports.

McDonald said the students took the assignment of writing the report
seriously.

Out of the 117 students, the reports written by Stormi Alsman and
Dalton Lewis were chosen as the best.

"I did not judge those reports. They were sent off and judged by
someone else," McDonald noted.

Linton Police Department Chief Troy Jerrell said the reports the
students wrote were wonderful.

"To hear these kids' stories is touching to say the least," Jerrell
said. "To read through these letters and see what they had to say
about the program, their lives and what they've learned from the
program is absolutely wonderful."

Alsman was also chosen as honorable mention in the state's DARE poster
contest. For the contest, students had to make a poster including DARE
and the Indiana Pacers. One Indiana student was chosen as the winner,
while 10 were chosen as honorable mention. Alsman received a free
ticket to see the Pacers and Chicago Bulls play this weekend. She also
gets to go onto the floor before the game and meet some of the players.

McDonald thanked the businesses in the community for their support of
the DARE program.

"We had an overwhelming amount of donations from the local business
and if we didn't have that money, there's no way I could've done the
graduation," McDonald said.

Looking back in the program, McDonald said, she thought it went
well.

"I think it went very, very well," she said.

She said the students seemed to have enjoyed the program.

"The kids loved it. I have heard nothing but good from the parents and
kids," she said, noting that she's even received positive feedback
from grandparents whose grandchildren participated in the program.

"It's just unreal," McDonald said. "They loved it, and I loved it. I
had a ball."

Jerrell, like McDonald, thought the program went well.

"From talking to the students, from talking to the staff and faculty
at the school and the parents, I have not heard anything negative from
the program," Jerrell said.

With the program comes the possibility that students lives were
positively impacted.

"I'm just glad to be a part of that," Jerrell said.

While the students enjoyed themselves, McDonald said, it wasn't all
about fun.

While the main theme of DARE is "don't do drugs," there were several
other lessons taught, including: Ways to fight drug abuse, peer
pressure, different drugs and the way they affect the body,
alternatives to drugs to escape feeling of anger and depression, and
cause and effect.

A few weeks ago, McDonald said it was decided that the program will
continue for at least two more years.