PITTSFIELD ROTARY CLUB   10-8-08

GET ROTARY RADIO DAY ADS SOLD BY THIS WEDNESDAY!!!! October 15.

There will be a work session on Thursday at 9:00 am. At WBBA Radio….NEED HELP!!!  Please give a little time to help if you can.

Make up:  Roberta at Louisiana, Mo..  She also reported she and Eric are still married. He is in Iraq and working to try to get a feed mill back in operation.  Living in a small box trailer, similar to Jim Watson…..Doing well, and met someone who had worked with Jim…also a person from California who was on the Police force with Roberta’s brother.

Student Guests from Griggsville-Perry:  Lori Howell, in drama club, band chorus, National  Honor Society, active in church and community. Plans to study cosmetology.

Deana Browning, in chorus, drama, church youth, has been in ‘Upward Bound program for 4 years.  On Honor Roll, writes poetry and plans on attending John Wood.

Program:  President Debbie introduced Deputy Clint Weir, Dare Officer for Pike County.

Clint said his job is to teach students about Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco, and to help reduce their use through education.  He goes to every 5^th grade in the county, stressing the harmful effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and hopefully will have a healthy decrease in their use. 

His Goal is to warn, teach and show that the use of all three, especially drugs, can end all their dreams for the future.   He also adds violence to the list as he goes through the problems that arise from their use.

Drug use is Huge around here.  One out of 16 High School Students smokes marijuana on a daily basis.  

He says ‘scare tactics’ don’t work.. You have to be a kid to teach.  Kids don’t want to be told what not to do, but any effort to inform them is better than nothing, and we believe the Dare Program is really helping.

A major problem is many parents make out the police officer to be a ‘bad guy’.  The officer in the classroom tries to become a friend that the children can rely upon and trust.

Dare tries to teach kids by:  Providing information; Decision making skills; How to resist ‘Peer pressure’; and to give them ideas and alternatives.

The number one opposition is the parent.  They spend 99 percent of their non-school hours with them.

Parents need to teach values.  If they don’t, the kids won’t have them.

Funding for the Dare program comes from fines of drug and alcohol offenders.  The ‘Bad Boys’ (and Women), pay for this educational effort.  Hope to in the future also include Freshman classes.

Very informative program!!  Keep it up!