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Drug, alcohol council sets goals
Achievements highlight plans for new year
BY JoAN KNAPPLE OLSON
Staff Writer for Lexington Clipper-Herald
LEXINGTON - Lexington's Drug and Alcohol
Council has geared up for another year of drug and alcohol prevention activities. In a meeting Tuesday, co-chairman Tim Davis reviewed the highlights of the council's 2001-2002 year. Many of those activities will be
continued into the 2002-2003 year.
Last year the council received Tobacco Grant funds that co-chair Jennifer Sand said were used partially to purchase pamphlets and copy handouts that were distributed to
doctors, hospitals and day care facilities. The material can then be passed on to parents to educate them about second-hand smoke and its effects, especially on children. More funds are needed this year to continue
that education program, Sand said.
Other achievements in the past year, Davis said, included the Red Ribbon Day for middle school and elementary school students to remind them of the dangers of drugs. The
special day will be in October again this year. "I especially like the one-night efforts," Davis said, "and they will happen again this year - the post-graduation party, the New Year's Eve drug-free
party and the post-prom party." The council contributes funds each year to the parents or students organizing those drug and alcohol free parties.
"It's so nice now that they're going on their own
with parents and kids taking that responsibility," Davis said about the drug-free parties, "but it was a lot of work getting them started in the beginning."
With the help of council member Walt
Wells of Lexington, a teen alcohol group has been started along the lines of AA. Wells said the group has several young people and they now meet regularly to discuss the problems they are having living with a parent
or caregiver who is alcoholic.
"It just lets them know that they are not alone out there," Wells said, "that there are other kids in the same circumstances."
Other events held last
year at the high school to draw attention to the perils of drugs and alcohol included a Grim Reaper Day, a SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) group was established and the activities code was changed to
have a stronger effect on students.
Workshops were held for parents and school staff on gangs, tobacco and methamphetamine during the last school year, and the council plans on continuing those presentations
this year.
A project that was developed but not completed last year was training high school students to act as role models and give presentations in the elementary schools about not getting involved in
drugs, alcohol and smoking. That project will be a focus of the council for this year.
Council member Ray Otero, assistant principal at the high school, suggested that the Nuestro Futuro hispanic teen group
might be interested in that kind of activity. They are already planning to make presentations in the elementary schools about respect and appropriate behavior this year, Otero said.
Council member Gary
Reiber, Dawson County Sheriff, said he wanted to see more public education for adults on the consequences of purchasing alcohol for minors. "I think we need to focus harder on that," Sheriff Reiber said,
"and show them what's going to happen to them when they buy for minors. That is often the source of teen drinking." Reiber also said he would like to continue the video presentations that the department
had developed that show real-life victims of drug and alcohol abuse.
"The presentation was requested to be shown in Lincoln," Reiber continued, "and it was the direct result of the Lexington
Drug and Alcohol Council's work."
A new agency for Lexington, Project Extra Mile, will be coordinating with the Drug and Alcohol Council in the prevention of underage drinking. Coordinator Kristie
Bartlett of Cozad said she will be working with the community, the Drug and Alcohol Council, law enforcement and the media to get the word out that "underage drinking is illegal, unhealthy and
unacceptable." She established an office in the Parent-Child Center building on Washington Street and is establishing a coalition of community resources to further the goals of the new agency.
Project
Extra Mile is an Omaha based agency funded by the Nebraska Department of Highway Safety and the Office of Juvenile Justice in the Nebraska Crime Commission. It was established in 1995 through the National
Association of Governors Highway Safety Representatives in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Other current members of the Drug and Alcohol Council attending the meeting
were Pershing Elementary School Principal Jerry Bergstrom, Tri-County Hospital finance director Steve Lewis, Lexington Middle School counselor Amy Randel, Norton Kan. Valley Hope representative Steve Horney,
co-chairman and Lexington High School counselor Terry Sullivan and Boys and Girls Home school intervention worker Malinda Robbins.
Anyone interested in joining the council can contact any of the chairmen
Davis or Sullivan, 324-3600, or Sand at 324-6754.
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