Prairie High Youth Educate Staff to Reduce Chewing Tobacco Use
On November 4th, 2009, Prairie High School ROTC cadets Jayson Camp and Justin Plummer and Health Sciences and Career student, Annelies Buck, attended the American Cancer Society Speak-Out Workshop at ESD112. They became concerned about the issue of chewing tobacco taking place in the classrooms at PHS. During the Speak-Out training, they decided to do something about it. They created a Chewing Tobacco Awareness presentation to educate all staff during "Through With Chew" Week. On February 9th, 2010 these students presented to the Prairie High School staff. The information that they presented provided resources for the staff, to help them with the process of referring students to the tobacco education classes, if they have caught a student in possession of tobacco products or the student was caught using tobacco. The staff was very responsive to the presentation and they too had been very concerned about this issue.
Check out the presentation! Through with Chew
The La Center Middle School STARS Club Host Health and Fitness Fair!
The La Center Students Taking A Right Stand (STARS) Club, with sponsorship from the La Center Lions, conducted the first annual Health and Fitness Fair on May 29th at La Center Middle School. STARS, an active student club dedicated to preventing substance abuse and promoting healthy decisions, planned the Health and Fitness fair to educate peers about all of the possibilities for healthy choices in their community.
The fair featured over 20 organizations, including health education organizations such as SEA MAR, Southwest Washington Medical Center and PREVENT!; and local positive youth activities such as Taekwondo, dance, 4H, and more. The STARS club facilitated students' interaction with health organizations and learning that there are many ways to have fun and get involved without drugs and alcohol. The event lasted all day with grades 6-8 each spending two hours at the fair. Students interacted with all of the organizations, tried some Taekwondo with Mt. View Taekwondo, watched dancers from Reach for the Stars studio perform, and played with dogs from the Dog and Company program. The organizations represented were surprised at how excited the students were to be there and the students resoundingly approved of this new event, as evidenced by one student's proclamation: "This was awesome!"
The STARS club advisor is La Center Prevention/Intervention Specialist Cathy den Boer. The club student leadership team includes Ashley Beed, Olivia Loreth, Madisen Moon, Jaden Solias, and Kersty Szekely. The STARS club is sponsored by the La Center Lions Club and mentored by PREVENT! The Substance Abuse Coalition of Clark County.
