Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jul 2006
Source: Carlsbad Current-Argus (NM)
Copyright: 2006 Carlsbad Current-Argus
Contact:  http://www.currentargus.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2549
Author: Andrea Rich, Current-Argus Staff Writer

LOW TURNOUT AT LOCK-IN DOESN'T HAMPER PROGRAM YOUTH  ADVISER'S
ENTHUSIASM

CARLSBAD -- More than 500 Carlsbad students who  graduated from the
D.A.R.E. program with their  fifth-grade year were eligible to attend
the first  Carlsbad D.A.R.E. lock-in at the recreation complex  Saturday.

Only six showed up.

Youth Adviser Bianca Morales was upbeat Saturday about  giving the
kids who did show a good time -- a little  extra attention for their
graduation from the  drug-prevention program. The six participants
were not  all from the same elementary school, and were  scrounging
through the large plastic bags filled with  T-shirts (500), squirt
guns and other rec equipment  planned for use during the lock-in.

Morales said not only did she advertise the event in  the newspaper
and on the radio -- the community  responded very generously to her
requests for  assistance. As the youth adviser for D.A.R.E. in
Carlsbad, Morales said she works closely with the local  police who
teach the drug awareness program. The Youth  Advisory Board of
D.A.R.E. America appoints her.

Low attendance at this event hasn't discouraged Morales  from planning
more new opportunities for Carlsbad  students in the program next year.

At a conference Morales attended in Virginia, she  learned as a
D.A.R.E. leader what kinds of events other  communities put on to
reward students for the  dedication to the program.

She took the ideas of a lock-in, a dance and a D.A.R.E.  day and
combined them into one event at the rec center.

The participants Saturday afternoon didn't let their  small numbers
diminish their enthusiasm for the fun  planned through the night.

As they loaded squirt guns with water and prepared to take the water
fight outdoors,  Andrea Gonzales, a former Joe Stanley Smith student,
said her favorite part of the year-long D.A.R.E.  program was
"Learning about what drugs can do to your  body."

Chris Mills, a student from Hillcrest, said he liked  the D.A.R.E.
decision-making model the best.

The students in the D.A.R.E. program also get to become  familiar with
local law enforcement.

Jovan Granger, a Craft Elementary student last year,  said that
getting to know officer Carl Guillermo, her  school's D.A.R.E.
officer, was one of the best parts of  the program. She said the
things he taught her and her  classmates would stay with her "forever."

In the coming school year, D.A.R.E. will continue to  work with
fifth-graders at every elementary school in  the district, but Morales
will also take a different  version of the age-appropriate message to
the high  school and the middle schools.

D.A.R.E. grads at the lock-in haled from Eddy, Joe  Stanley Smith and
Craft and Hillcrest elementaries. As  graduates of the Carlsbad
D.A.R.E. program, these  students and their 490-plus fifth-grade
counterparts  from the 2005-06 school year can attend a D.A.R.E.
daylong Christmas party in Albuquerque this December,  Morales said. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Steve Heath