Red Ribbon Week Wraps Up, But Our Poster Contest Goes On!

Many of our YES! LEADS Districts put in some extra time this week to push Red Ribbon Week in their elementary schools. Some schools had special assemblies, with others hosting a free event for their school and even others going to classrooms to hand out Red Ribbon Week goodies. At R.T. Stank Middle School, they hosted Spirit Week this past week with each day having a special theme, ending with Red Day where all students wore red to show their support for staying drug and alcohol free. They even made a promo video of all the fun things that happened during the week at their school which you can watch here.

Red Ribbon Week is a national drug and alcohol prevention effort that runs from October 23rd to the 31st. The tradition of displaying Red Ribbons as a symbol of intolerance towards the use of drugs began in 1985. Today, Red Ribbon Week is one of the largest drug prevention programs in the nation.

Every year for Red Ribbon Week, YES! Safe Choices for Kids hosts a poster contest for YES! LEADS elementary schools. This provides a fun opportunity for kids to learn valuable lessons about drugs, alcohol and the importance of making safe choices. Every year, we get hundreds of AWESOME entries from across the Southern Tier, and we can't wait to see what posters come back to our office on November 23rd!

For more information on our Red Ribbon Week Poster Contest, visit http://www.yessafechoices.org/.

October is Bullying Prevention Month

In recent years, elementary teachers have begun asking our YES! LEADS groups to focus on a new topic during their presentations: bullying.

Bullying has always been a problem in schools, but the advent of social networking has created new ways for students to pick on one another. Cyberbullying off the playground has become a newer problem recently, and in several instances has led to unfortunate consequences.

YES! Safe Choices for Kids and our YES! LEADS groups are joining together with other school organizations to celebrate National Bullying Prevention Month. Our Windsor YES! LEADS group will be doing presentations at Windsor Middle School highlighting the dangers of bullying, as well as ways to be a good friend.

Everyone can help make their school districts a bully-free zone, whether it's talking to your kids about bullying and how it can affect someone else or intervening in situations where bullying is out of hand.

So join YES! in celebrating National Bullying Prevention Month.