“Use your journey to middle school as a stepping stone to becoming a better human.”
This advice, from Bellefontaine High School D.A.R.E. president Chloe Lloyd, highlighted the encouraging words shared with the 163 fifth-graders who graduated from the D.A.R.E. program Friday, April 22, at Bellefontaine Intermediate School (BIS).
“The world needs you to be unique,” Lloyd said. “And part of choosing your happiness is choosing to be kind to those around you.”
D.A.R.E., which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, provides students with the knowledge they need to enjoy drug- and violence-free lives. But, according to BIS D.A.R.E. officer Isaac Chiles, it’s much more than that.
“You will face a lot of challenges in middle school,” he told the children. “It’s simple to say drugs are bad, but there are more important things I want to teach, like decision-making, reducing stress and resisting peer pressure.”
Also on hand at the graduation was Bellefontaine police chief Brandon Standley, who emphasized how significant this time was to the students’ lives, even if they didn’t realize it yet. He reminded them that as easy as it is to say yes to doing something wrong, saying, “No, I’m not going to do it” would have a far more positive impact on their future.
As part of the program, students wrote essays about D.A.R.E. Eleven of those compositions were chosen to receive a special award. The students who authored the winning essays were: Mia Brown, Rylee Crabtree, Matthew Dearwester, Cameo Greene, Tyrin Johnson, Diana Martinez, Liam Scott, Addison Smith, Rylee Timberlake, Blakely Volrath and Kaleb White. Chiles picked two to be featured during the ceremony—Mia Brown read hers and Chiles read Cameo Greene’s.
After the essays, the teacher for each of the seven BIS fifth-grade classes came up and, one-by-one, called their students to receive a graduate certificate, a D.A.R.E. pin and a gift card to Donato’s Pizza. The Bellefontaine mayor, Ben Stahler, and the school superintendent, Brad Hall, were also there to honor the students.