Last week, hundreds of school across the country celebrated Red Ribbon Week. Abundant Life Christian School was one of them! Red Ribbon Week is a week dedicated to making students aware of the importance of staying drug free. It was created in memory of Enrique Camarena.
Camarena was an undercover agent in Mexico who worked fervently to eliminate the use of drugs. He was an agent for four years and helped capture many major drug traffickers. In 1985, Camarena was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the people he worked so hard to catch. His friends and family began wearing red pieces of string in memory of him. They wanted to promote the cause he gave his life for. The red string caught on and eventually became adopted nationally as the symbol for Red Ribbon Week.
During Red Ribbon Week, we had crazy dress up days, saw a drug dog and the police who works with him, learned how drugs and alcohol can affect a person’s body, and figured up how much money it would cost to smoke a pack of cigarettes every day for 10 years. It was great to see how interested my students were in learning about why drugs and alcohol are bad for you. They would have discussed the topic all day if I would have let them!
At the end of the week, we had a special time where students could choose to sign a pledge to remain drug free. All of mine signed it! They received a certificate for participating in the events of the week and every child cheered for the others as they signed the pledge and were presented their certificates. It was a wonderful week and will hopefully stay with the students if they are ever confronted with a situation where they have to choose to stay drug free or not.
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