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Statewide, 3,400 sixth graders -- roughly a third of public school sixth graders -- are participating in a $3.5-million research experiment, Project BEST. Designed by researchers at the University of Rhode Island, the computerized program aims to guide pre-teens away from smoking and drinking before those risky behaviors take root, as well as encourage them to eat right and exercise.
The program, financed by a five-year grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, is being run by URI's Cancer Prevention Research Center, which conducted similar projects for older students and adults in the 1990s that showed improvement, according to the center.
The computer survey asks the students a series of questions and provides support in curbing risky behavior. The students' answers trigger follow-up questions specific to that student. Researchers hope Project BEST's personal approach will help it succeed where other programs targeted toward preventing risky behaviors among middle school students have failed.
"We haven't had a lot of success so far with classroom approaches in health class or with DARE officers talking to kids,"
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When DARE first started I didn't think I would learn anything. I was wrong. I have learned so much from Deputy Gardner that I wish D.A.R.E. would last the whole school year! . . .
I know a secret to youth. The secret is not smoking or doing drugs of any sort. Deputy Gardner makes learning serious things, like the nasty effects of drugs, enjoyable.
Logan elementary schools are bidding farewell to the D.A.R.E. program.
The program, designed to teach kids to resist drugs and violence, will be replaced by N.O.V.A., a program teachers and Logan police officers say does a better job of preparing students to face today’s challenges.
Like the D.A.R.E. program, N.O.V.A. teaches kids to resist drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and violence, but it also deals with a broader range of issues facing today’s kids, said Det. Denny Bird of the Logan City Police Department, who has taught D.A.R.E. to Logan fifth-graders for the past few years.
“It has everything D.A.R.E. does and a ton more,” Bird said.
PROVO - On his first day running a beer-and-cigarette-free store, Paul Ream said he has heard only one complaint, but lots of praise.
"The complaint was that I shouldn't force my values on others," Ream, owner of Ream's Family Foods, said Friday. But he said he has received a surprising amount of praise for his action.
Customers at the Provo grocery store said they didn't mind that there was no beer on the shelves or cigarettes behind the courtesy desk.
In fact, some said they came to the store Friday for that reason.
"When I saw it in the paper, I said we're going to Ream's," said Nina Childs of Provo, who was shopping with her husband, Ardeen.
Ream decided to stop stocking beer and cigarettes after his 9-year-old daughter, Shyanne, asked him why he sold "drugs" in his store.
When I saw it in the paper, I said we're going to Ream's.Nina Childs of Provo, UT, on Paul Ream's decision to stop stocking beer and cigarettes at his store, Ream's Family Foods.
While taking a D.A.R.E. class at school, 9-year-old Shyanne Ream asked her father once why he was "selling drugs" at his Provo grocery store. Paul Ream stopped and thought - and now he is acting. The owner of Ream's Family Foods at 2250 N. University Parkway is taking all the Budweisers and the Coors and the Camels and the Marlboros off the shelves. In fact, Thursday was the last day customers could buy beer, cigarettes or other tobacco products at the store. Ream said the decision to rid his store of alcohol and smokes started when Shyanne enrolled in D.A.R.E.
The HP 2010 objective for this indicator (objective no. 16-17c) is that 99% of pregnant women will abstain from cigarette smoking. Because PRAMS does not collect data on tobacco use during the first or second trimester of pregnancy, for this analysis, abstinence from smoking during pregnancy was defined as abstinence from smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy. In 2003, prevalence of abstinence from cigarette smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy ranged from 72.5% in West Virginia to 96.1% in Utah (Table 2). No state achieved the objective for abstinence from smoking during pregnancy. During 2000--2003, prevalence of abstinence from cigarette smoking during pregnancy increased significantly only in Utah (Table 6); for the other states, prevalence of abstinence from smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy remained relatively unchanged. . . .
The HP 2010 objective for this indicator (objective no. 27-6) is that 30% of smokers will stop smoking during pregnancy. For this analysis, smoking cessation was defined as the report of any cigarette smoking during the 3 months before pregnancy but no cigarette smoking reported during the last 3 months of pregnancy. In 2003, prevalence of smoking cessation during pregnancy ranged from 30.2% in West Virginia to 65.8% in Utah (Table 2). All states achieved the health objective for smoking cessation. During 2000--2003, prevalence of smoking cessation during pregnancy increased significantly (Table 7) in Utah; for the other states, trend analysis indicated that prevalence of smoking cessation remained relatively unchanged. . . .
No state achieved the HP 2010 objectives for three indicators in the preconception period that affect maternal and child health outcomes (intended pregnancy, multivitamin use during the month before pregnancy, and physical abuse during the 12 months before pregnancy). For behaviors in the prenatal period, results were mixed. No state achieved the objective for abstinence from smoking during pregnancy. However, all states included in this analysis achieved the objective for smoking cessation during pregnanc
A DARE Graduation took place at the Infant/Junior School on Thursday, 03 August 2006. In his introduction Sergeant Dave Roberts of the Royal Falkland Islands Police said that the DARE programme in the Falkland Islands has been going for eight years now and that nearly 400 students in Year 6 have received their DARE Certificates. During that eight years the course had been adjusted to reflect the problems that young people were facing today. He emphasised that DARE was not anti-alcohol but he did say that as adults these students needed to know how to drink sensibly. However, he said that DARE WAS anti- smoking and anti drugs.
“Cigarettes are very addictive,” she said, “because they contain nicotine, and they also have over 200 known poisons in the smoke.”
The harm cigarettes cause does not stop with their users, she said, because “cigarette smoke can also harm others who do not smoke.”
For Clements there has also been a personal side to her stand against the “many types of cancer” caused by tobacco products.
“I should know,” she said, because her grandfather “has throat cancer from many years of smoking.
“Believe me, it isn't a pretty thing to see,” she said.
Cheers and screams could be heard throughout the city Monday night as sixth graders from the six Enterprise elementary schools professed a decision and commitment to be "drug free."
About 400 students participated in the 10-week drug abuse resistance education (DARE) program made possible through the support of the Enterprise Police Department and Lt. Cindy Dunaway and Officer Adair Lee, the Enterprise City School System, and the Enterprise City Council. . . .
In Woodard's essay, she said DARE made her more aware of smoking and alcohol abuse and how they negatively impact the body.
"It (smoking) makes you look ugly, not cool," she said.
Dance has joined forces with hip hop sensation The JammX Kids to help fight a health crisis facing today's youth. The JammX Kids, nine multi-cultural kids between the ages of 9 and 17, are "kids helping kids" shake off today's more sedentary behavior to move, groove and dance their way into a physically active and healthy lifestyle. The JammX Kids also recently announced their partnership with basketball great Shaquille O'Neal to encourage kids to get active, eat smart and grow up well.
Among the many facets of the partnership between D.A.R.E. and The JammX Kids, The JammX Kids' upcoming DVDs, which will be distributed by Warner Home Video, will become part of the curriculum of the D.A.R.E. Dance program implemented in elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. The JammX Kids will make appearances at D.A.R.E. Dance programs in numerous schools throughout the U.S.; they will appear in PSAs for D.A.R.E; websites of both JammX and D.A.R.E. will feature special activities and link; and D.A.R.E. will provide marketing and promotional support for the March 2006 debut of The JammX Kids DVDs and two television specials on Kids' WB!
Local teens who want to “dance the night away without sucking in the second-hand smoke endemic at some clubs,” The Pit of Kill Devil Hills will offer its second Smoke Free Teen Night tonight, giving area teens who don't mind a bit of travelling to the Outer Banks a fun activity over the holiday weekend.a
DJ Styles will spin danceable hip hop for the event which will run from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Admission is the usual $10; however, $1 of each admission charge will be donated to the Dare County Department of Public Health's Peer Power Program.
Ashley Eicher, who is "Miss Tennessee 2004," spoke Tuesday morning at Greeneville's graduation ceremony for the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) program.
She told the 240 fifth-grade DARE graduates during a ceremony in Hal Henard Elementary School's gymnasium to have respect, follow their dreams and say no to bad things.
"You guys can do anything you want to do," she said. "You can be anything you want to be. You've just got to work hard at it."
NEW COLUMBIA -- An insert in a recent edition of The Daily Item sparked the interest of fifth-graders at the White Deer Elementary School, becoming what educators call a teachable moment.
The smoke-free dining guide in the Feb. 28 edition of the newspaper, placed by the American Lung Association, generated a discussion about second-hand smoke and clean air indoors in the classroom of veteran teacher Shirley Menges. She saw in the discussion an opportunity to involve the entire fifth grade.
Over the next few weeks, Mrs. Menges and fellow teacher Kelly Hower guided their pupils, helping them research illnesses caused by second-hand smoke, learn about the deadly chemicals in smoke and the status of legislation.
They learned about how laws are made, and now they are writing letters they plan to send to their state legislators, urging them to pass "Clean Air Indoors" legislation.
"There was a perfect tie-in to our DARE program," said Mrs. Menges, "since smoking is one of the subjects we discussed there."