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Rhodes School Red Ribbon Week encourages drug-free living
Rhodes School students signed a pledge banner about staying away from drugs and alcohol and each classroom decorated their doors with a drug-free theme as part of Red Ribbon Week. | Contributed photo
Updated: December 2, 2012 6:42AM
RIVER GROVE — Rhodes School hosted a week filled with activities for students to promote a drug- and alcohol-free life.
“We Have Better Things to Do Than Drugs” was Rhodes School’s motto for Red Ribbon Week, which ran from Oct. 22-26.
The week started Oct. 22 with an assembly from “Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best.” The NED show visits schools from across the country, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and has performed at the White House.
“The NED show came to Rhodes and spoke to students about never giving up, doing your best and tied that into Red Ribbon Week,” Vice Principal Brian McConnell said. “They talked about how staying alcohol- and drug-free can help you do your best throughout your life.”
The assembly also promoted positive attitudes, stressing that staying away from drugs would help students become champions at school and life.
Each day for the rest of the week, students had a theme and activity to tie into being drug-free. On Oct. 23, it was “I’ve Got Better Things to Do Than Drugs,” and students wore red clothing.
Other themes included Living Drug Free is No Sweat, where students could wear sweat pants; Turn Your Back on Drugs, where students could wear their clothes backwards; and Rhodes Will Stay Drug Free, where students could wear Rhodes attire.
“When students had to wear all red, 90 percent of them wore red,” McConnell said. “It was cool because it’s also our school colors.”
During the morning announcements, McConnell also read off a drug-free speech.
For participating in Red Ribbon Week, each day students received a prize – pencils, ribbons, wrist bands, and soccer balls. All of these prizes have the “We Have Better Things to Do Than Drugs” slogan on them.
Students also signed a pledge banner about staying away from drugs and alcohol. Each classroom decorated their doors with a drug-free theme.
