DRUG TASK FORCE WANTS VOLUNTEERS

Community Meeting Set Dec. 11 To Recruit Volunteers In Schools

SANFORD - The Sanford/Lee County Drug and Crime Prevention Task Force is
calling on local residents and churches alike to take steps to prevent drug
use in Lee County.

The task force is holding an open meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, at
the Civic Center to increase public awareness of its purpose: increase
community-wide support for drug and crime prevention programs and recruit
volunteers to work with children and help keep them away from drugs and crime.

Led by President Roy McGuire and Vice President Bill Huggins, the task
force is a private organization that evolved out of the Drug Action
Committee started by the local Chamber of Commerce about 25 years ago.

The task force has a board of directors made up of law enforcement
officials, members of city and county government, representatives from the
Hispanic Task Force, school board members and many others.

"We've gone about as far as we can with the people we have now," Huggins
said. "We want to take the next step, and we need broad-based support from
the community. We need a lot of people to come together and say, 'I'm ready
to help. I'm ready to be involved.'"

The main focus of the task force right now is building up a solid base of
dedicated volunteers to work with the schools and charity organizations
tutoring, monitoring and helping children.

"We're focusing so much on the schools because a lot of kids fall behind at
the elementary level, so by the time they get to middle and high school,
they don't read well or don't do math well. If they are struggling in
school, they will lose interest, and that is when they become a discipline
problem and turn to drugs and crime," Huggins said.

The task force has sent out hundreds of letters announcing the Dec. 11
event to local churches, local legislators, area schools and businesses and
seeking their support. "If we can't get the churches involved, it will be
very difficult for us to do this," Huggins said. "Churches are the best
source of people who make good volunteers. We can't just have people who do
it one time and never come back. We need dedicated volunteers."

Even churches that are already involved in community service programs like
the Helping Hand Program are urged to attend the meeting to share their
experiences and possibly get involved in other programs, Huggins said.

McGuire said the group has already received the endorsement of the
Sanford/Lee County Chamber of Commerce, which represents many local businesses.

"We need to look at drug and crime problems as community-wide problems that
everybody has to get involved in," Huggins said. "Communities, churches and
businesses need to get involved - the whole community. Business owners
ought to want to be involved. Churches ought to want to be involved. The
schools are already very interested. If everyone doesn't get involved, it
is not going to better. If everyone isn't out there working to make the
community a better place, it's not going to be a better place."

Huggins said anyone who can volunteer even just one hour a week would make
a difference. "If everyone in Lee County volunteered one hour a week things
would be very different," he said.