National Family Partnership and DEA have joined forces for the 2012 Red Ribbon Week youth drug prevention campaign, creating a national contest that targets 10 regions across the country. Ten schools that have a chance to win a $1,000 grant for drug prevention, while the student/winner will take home an iPad.
According to a press release by NFP, students can bring the Red Ribbon Week message home by working with their parents to decorate their front door, mailbox, fence or other structure with this year’s theme: “The Best Me Is Drug Free.”
Entry into the contest involves uploading a photo with the family and their Red Ribbon Week decoration to www.redribbon.org/contest or www.facebook.com/RedRibbonWeek, then asking family and friends to vote for the entry at www.redribbon.org/vote from Nov. 2 through Nov. 16. Top vote getters from across the U.S. will be announced at events at their winning schools in December.
“Students will once again take Red Ribbon Week’s message of prevention home to their neighborhoods with this national contest,” said the NFP’s Volunteer President Peggy Sapp. “By decorating their homes together with this year’s Red Ribbon theme, families carry the message to their communities.”
That message is expected to reach 80 million people, said an NFP press release.
This year, the DEA co-sponsors the national contest for the first time: “DEA is excited to partner with the National Family Partnership on this contest that empowers communities to come together to talk about the drug problem,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “Red Ribbon Week is also when we honor DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena, who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our communities safe.”
Camarena was a Mexican undercover agent for DEA whose abduction in broad daylight in Mexico on Feb. 7, 1985 — allegedly by corrupt members of police — was ordered by drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. Camarena was tortured and murdered. After his murder, parents, youth and teachers in communities across the country began wearing Red Ribbons as a symbol of their commitment to raise awareness of the destruction caused by drugs, said the press release.
For more information about the contest, visit www.redribbon.org/contest.