STUDENTS D.A.R.E. TO SAY NO TO DRUG ABUSE

Const. Frank McConnell still remembers the day local RCMP signed an
agreement that launched the D.A.R.E. program in Kelowna: Aug. 29, 1999.

The pilot D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program started
at Pearson and Glenmore elementary schools and six years later, every
elementary school in the Central Okanagan is participating in the
cops-teach-kids classes.

"It was such a huge success, we are now in every school in School
District 23, and two private schools," said McConnell, who is the
region's D.A.R.E. coordinator and helps oversee the ever-expanding
program.

RCMP currently has seven D.A.R.E. officers in the Central Okanagan,
specially trained to teach Grade 5 and 6 students all about drugs,
tobacco and alcohol.

"We're hoping to train four more in January," said
McConnell.

>From its humble beginnings at two schools, the program has steadily
grown and along with it comes some impressive statistics. "Since we
started D.A.R.E., we've taught 6,000-plus students," said McConnell,
who added that students who took the course in the first year it was
offered are now graduating high school. "The first ones are now in
Grade 12," he said.

This year, 1,685 students will take the 10-week course in 32 Kelowna
and Westside area schools. Twenty-eight students recently took the
course and graduated at Our Lady of Lourdes elementary school in Westbank.

Wednesday, students in Grade 5 and 6 at Our Lady of Lourdes assembled
in the gymnasium to accept their diplomas, a right of passage for kids
going through the D.A.R.E. program.

Principal Mary Manton said her school had been waiting a while to get
the program going and, now that it is, she's very pleased with the
results. "This is our second year," she said.

Each D.A.R.E. student is required to write an essay near the end of
the 10-week course to show what they've learned.

Four read their essays to the small gathering of students, parents and
others in the gym. McConnell was joined by Const. Reg Lawrence, who
taught the Our Lady of Lourdes' kids the D.A.R.E. course and Sgt. Ross
Van den Brink of the Westbank detachment.

"What day is it?" Lawrence asked. "It's D.A.R.E. day!" the graduating
students shouted back.

Van den Brink told the kids that what Lawrence had given them was
knowledge and skills.

"Think of the knowledge and skills as tools in your tool box of life,"
he said.

Funding for the D.A.R.E. program, which costs about $15 per student,
comes from private donations, area service clubs, the regional
district, City of Kelowna and the municipality of Lake Country,
according to McConnell.

The parent support group at Our Lady of Lourdes also kicked in funding
for the D.A.R.E. program, noted Manton.

McConnell said he hopes that 2006 will see the remaining elementary
schools in the Central Okanagan, all privately operated, offer the
D.A.R.E. program to their students as well.