DAREING TO BE DRUG FREE

Traveling Lion Urges Students To Just Say `No'

ASHLAND - A foot-long, stuffed lion with fuzzy, orange hair and goofy eyes
seems an unlikely ambassador for a national drug abuse prevention program.

Still, in the last year, Daren the DARE Lion has traveled to more than 60
cities in 37 states, from Ashland, Penn., to Ashland, Ky., carrying the
healthy-living message with him.

Via the U.S. Postal Service, Daren is passed from school to school, each
one adding something to the scrapbooks that travel with him.

Daren's scrapbooks from Ashland look something like tourists' souvenirs.
There's a photo of him in front of the Catlettsburg floodwall, author Billy
C. Clark staring thoughtfully into space behind him. There's a picture
taken on the bench with Boyd Circuit Judge David Hagerman. In another
photo, Daren sits in the back of an ambulance with a paramedic. In another,
he rides atop the hood of an Ashland police cruiser.

Sandy Branham, a volunteer at Crabbe Elementary, said she got a few stares
while carrying the toy lion from place to place, especially when she took
it to Bob Evans in downtown Ashland.

``I got a few looks," Branham said, ``but everyone has been great. We just
wanted to show a little bit of what our town is about."

People who support the Daren project hope it will get children talking
about the DARE message.

``It's to tell kids to have the heart of a lion and say 'no' to drugs,"
said Crabbe sixth-grade teacher Bryan Fleming.

A year ago, Fleming got an e-mail from Dennis Kane, a police officer from
Ashland, Pa.

It was Kane's idea to send the lion around the United States.

``He just asked that we get him back in one piece," Fleming said.

Students in his class seemed to get the message.

``It's pretty nice that they're sending around a mascot for DARE," said
Shawn Breedlove, an 11-year-old Crabbe student whose sixth-grade class
hosted Daren last month.

``Some people might just think it's cute, but for some others, it might
remind them of DARE," Breedlove said.

Brooke Prince thought the lion could be a good tool for reaching out to
young children.

``It could help little kids understand more if they see this. It might
motivate them so they'll know it's not just all talk," Prince said.

From here, the lion was to go out West before returning to the Schuylkill
County Sheriff's Department in Pennsylvania.

Children sent him on his way wearing bandages from Boyd County EMS, a
juror's badge from Hagerman, a T-shirt from Crabbe and other mementos.