Red Ribbon Week focuses on the positive

Building blocks for better decisions

By KRISTI ALBERTSON/Daily Inter Lake

The fight against youth drug and alcohol abuse doesn't always have to focus on the negatives. Giving children positive alternatives to using illegal drugs also can be an effective strategy.

That's one of the premises behind Red Ribbon Week, which is sponsored by Flathead CARE. The annual event, held this year from Oct. 27 through Nov. 1, encourages families to spend time together and offers safe, drug-free events for kids and teens.

"For us, our philosophy is to try to keep the heavy stuff away from this week," Flathead CARE Executive Director Kari Gabriel said. "We try not to focus on the negative, the anti."

Red Ribbon Week is about "environmental prevention," said Julie Cummins, Flathead CARE's program coordinator. It is intended to help change assumptions about alcohol, tobacco and other illegal drugs.

The focus, Gabriel said, is on "anything illegal for youth," including drugs of any kind, tobacco and alcohol.

The latter is a particular focus, Cummins said.

"Nobody thinks of alcohol as a drug, because it's legal" for adults, she said. "But alcohol is the most widely abused drug, because it's socially acceptable."

In Flathead County in 2006, 35.1 percent of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders reported drinking alcohol within the 30 days prior to taking the Montana Prevention Needs Assessment Survey. Nearly 21 percent reported binge drinking - having five or more drinks at one sitting - at least once in the two weeks prior to the survey.

Those numbers were significant decreases from 2002 survey results, in which nearly 44 percent of students reported drinking within the 30 days prior to the survey. That year, 27.4 percent reported binge drinking within the two weeks before the survey.

To Gabriel and Cummins, those declines suggest that events such as Red Ribbon Week - as well as other efforts by Flathead CARE, local schools and other organizations - are helping students make healthier choices.

"I always wonder … are we making a difference?" Cummins said. "I have to think our young people overall are making better decisions."

She and Gabriel don't expect youths to ever completely stop using or experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

"Realistically, we know this problem is never going to go away," Cummins said. "It goes with the age category."

Flathead CARE hopes to push back kids' first experimentation. A generation or two ago, many teens didn't experiment with drugs and alcohol until their freshman year of college, Gabriel said. But today's youths - bombarded by media messages that make drinking, smoking and drug use seem cool - are starting much younger.

Research suggests that in young people, alcohol can destroy parts of the brain responsible for decision-making and control, Cummins said. Delaying the first time students try drinking, even until their senior year of high school, can lessen the likelihood of that happening, she said.

"We now know the earlier they start, [the more] they're set up for chemical dependency," she said. "Then we've got a real problem on our hands. They're set up to never be successful."

Within Kalispell Public Schools, many teens used to experiment with drugs and alcohol during the transition from ninth to 10th grade, Cummins said. Moving from the junior high to the high school influenced kids who were suddenly surrounded by older students, she said.

With the district's new grade divisions - ninth through 12th grades at Flathead and Glacier high schools and sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Kalispell Middle School - Cummins worries that students might begin experimenting with drugs and alcohol during the transition from fifth to sixth grade.

In an attempt to encourage family discussions about drugs and alcohol, Flathead CARE will mail newsletters to the parents of fifth- through eighth-grade students in the schools that make up the organization's coalition, Gabriel said.

"That's the age when we want parents to start talking to their kids" about alcohol and drugs, Cummins said.

Encouraging family discussion is one of the goals of Red Ribbon Week, which features family-friendly events nearly every night.

Flathead CARE also will zero in on the fifth- through eighth-grade audience by sending student advocates to area schools throughout the week. Members of Flathead CARE's high school student groups have prepared skits and presentations that will show younger students it's OK not to drink or use tobacco and other drugs, Gabriel said.

Community involvement also is important during Red Ribbon Week, Gabriel said.

"This is the one week out of the year when CARE can focus on alcohol, tobacco and other drugs with the community," she said.

Without support from local businesses - led this year by a large donation from First Interstate Bank - Flathead CARE couldn't put on Red Ribbon Week, said Cummins, who estimated that the event costs between $7,000 and $8,000.

Local businesses will offer discounts and specials all week for community members wearing red ribbons. A complete list of specials is available on Pages D4 and D5 of today's Inter Lake.

For additional information, call Flathead CARE at 751-3970.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.