Catoosa (alcohol) Prevention Initiative (CaPI), a strategy under the Catoosa County Family Collaborative, was honored to be able to provide all Catoosa County schools and part of Walker County schools with fun, interactive supplies to help celebrate living drug-free.
Mood pencils, glow-in-the-dark bracelets, lip balm, activity books, and of course, red ribbons — all touting a drug-free message — will accompany parties and lessons taught by individual teachers and counselors in the school. Red Ribbon's reasoning is that “living drug free is better than living under the influence, but once an individual is under the spell of drugs, it falsely appears to them that “everybody does it.”
“ Red Ribbon Week is a time to show visible support that ‘everybody does NOT do it’” and life without drugs is fun.
Red Ribbon Week came to life through the death of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was brutally murdered for his anti-drug work in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1985. What began as a local grassroots effort in his hometown of Calexico, Calif., to honor his life and dedication to keeping drugs out of the United States, is now the Red Ribbon Week awareness campaign nationwide.
CaPI works year-round to promote drug–free living and sponsors nurturing parenting classes, “Stay-on-Track,” which is a bi-weekly educational program for eighth-graders in the schools and the “Be the Wall between Teens and Alcohol” social marketing campaign. CaPI also sponsors the Dual County Defenders, a group of students age 15 and above who promote living a drug–free life.
Another program of CaPI is the upcoming Catoosa County Teen Maze held at The Colonnade in Ringgold, Oct. 22-24. The maze is a simulated game of life for all Catoosa County sophomores where they will experience possible consequences of underage drinking.
Anyone wishing to participate in CaPI programs, contact Candy Hullender or Phil Ledbetter at 706-935-5018, visit , or “like” CaPI’s Facebook page.
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