How Your Support Helps DrugFree Greenville

Ever wonder how DrugFree Greenville puts your donations to work?

If your child has been educated in Greenville schools during the past 19 years, here are some of the ways.

They include substance abuse prevention activities, programs and messages - all made possible by your generous donations. The list might surprise you. . .

• As a four year old preschooler, your student met McGruff, the famous crime fighting dog, at the Red Ribbon Tricycle Parade, after a week of health education stressing the danger of drugs.

• As your student entered elementary school, positive dialog with local law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs continued to be encouraged through the issuing of individual Hero Cards and classroom HEROES bingo competitions. Your student would have had 7 years in which to win a classroom “winners” field trip with a police escort, to a lunch celebration served by our heroes.

• And when each summer rolled around, your lucky student shared a Fishin’ Friday morning with area law enforcement officials fishing the pond at Graham Park and eating hot dogs.

• Your student celebrated 13 Red Ribbon Celebrations including 5 years of elementary classroom prevention education culminating in age appropriate DFG activity sheets, the wearing of special clothes on theme days like “sock it to drugs” and “put a cap on drugs”, helping to decorate their school with red ribbons and drug-free slogans, and adding the distinctive DFG “don’t let drugs pull you down” zipper pull to their back pack after
  signing their name to the drug-free pledge banner.

• Your student might have had the opportunity to represent their elementary campus at the annual GHS sponsored Red Ribbon Pep Rally; or your student might have walked along the highway from the Phoenix School to a prevention assembly wearing red in a Red Ribbon March.

• Thirteen school years brought opportunities for your student to experience all school DrugFree assemblies, sometimes featuring older kids in student produced dramas, to national prevention specialists including the acclaimed music and dance team, StraightWay and Primary Focus.

• And then there were all those opportunities to step out for a DrugFree Greenville at the annual Walkathon. However, even before the annual WALK day, your student could have supported the drug-free message by completing a Foot and Shoe classroom activity booklet and participating in a Treasure Chest School Challenge like “Slime a Principal” or “Duct Tape a Principal to the Wall”. Or perhaps, your student helped their school
  win a coveted Golden Sneaker award for most participants at a WALK.

• As your student grew to intermediate age, he or she accepted the serious challenge of studying substance abuse prevention in a two week science unit preparing for, and playing the drug question and answer game, Prevention Baseball.

• And then there was that memorable Kite Fly during 6th grade (5th & 6th for many) for which your student decorated kites, wrote invitations to a community guest and then shared the kite flying experience with that special person. It is even possible that those kites are still hanging around your student’s garage somewhere.

• Then your student became a teenager and a middle school student with special opportunities to impact their campus during Red Ribbon by distributing student council candy prevention messages, answering the drug fact question of the day, and listing all the positive things they would rather be doing as their “anti-drug”.

• If your student was a cheerleader, they provided encouragement to DFG Walkathon walkers hiking over the overpass or perhaps offered a cool drink of water at a WALK rest stop.

• The Red Ribbon theme days continued along with decorating the high school campus with chocolate kiss reminders that drugs are the kiss of death. DWI car antenna ribbons were tied on our student’s car and our student attended the annual Red Ribbon football game trying to catch a “winners don’t do drugs” mini football or T-shirt.

• Red Ribbon and the prom and graduation seasons brought crashed car displays to our student’s campus as reminders of the dangers of drinking and driving.

• Your student might even have donated a little red. . .blood, that is, at the New Horizons Red Ribbon Blood Drive. As a Greenville Christian School CARE member or New Horizons student, our student hosted lunches for guest assembly presenters.

• Then, if our student was a PAL, they cut miles of “tie one on” community red ribbons, they mentored GIS students at the Kite Fly, Mentored students at elementary “Heroes Lunches”, assisted with child care at Parent Power seminars, as well as, helping with early morning WALK set-ups.

• And last, but not least, your student participated in the extraordinary, life changing three day immersion anti-drinking and driving program, Shattered Dreams, including the fatality mock crash with first responders, living dead program, obituary readings, all school and community memorial assembly and mock intoxication manslaughter trial.

All of these student experiences over the last 19 years have been provided by DrugFree Greenville through the work of hundreds of community volunteers and teachers, for the benefit of “your” student and all of your student’s classmates, in the fervent hope that each of our city’s students will grow up in the knowledge that their city is dedicated to providing them the chance and the encouragement to grow up safe, healthy and drug free. Congratulations to all of those volunteers and students on an impressive 19 years!