With a sea of red throughout the halls of more than 28 campuses at the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District, students are coming together to support the importance of a healthy mind and body.
Starting on Oct. 23, HCISD began its celebration of Red Ribbon Week (RRW), which is dedicated to promoting a drug-free lifestyle to students, their families and the community.
“Red Ribbon Week is about us as students celebrating at our campus the choice to be drug free,” said Nathan Ramon, eighth grade student at Vernon Middle School. “Overall, it shows people that we promote awareness and pledge that we will not use drugs.”
The weeklong celebration is part of the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country. Each year, the week has a different theme, and the slogan for this year was “A Healthy Me is Drug Free.”
To compliment the theme, campuses hosted events, activities and parades to get into the spirit of saying no to drugs.
To kick-off the week, members of the Harlingen Police Department and Vernon band joined Crockett Elementary School during their RRW pep-rally. The Harlingen PD brought in their vehicles to show students, while students proudly displayed their RRW signs, and recited a pledge to remain drug-free.
Not to miss out on the fun, secondary campuses hosted their own events that consisted of dressing up to a certain theme to show their support. Middle and high school campuses had days like team up against drug day, where students wore jerseys of their favorite teams, and real heroes are drug free, which encouraged students to wear their superhero shirts to school.
At Vernon Middle School, eighth grade student Kassandra Morin’s favorite day was on Oct. 23 as they celebrated the RRW theme by wearing red to help spread awareness of the dangers of drug abuse, she said.
“Today is the best day because I get to wear my favorite red shirt,” said Morin as she proudly displayed her Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) shirt. “By wearing this shirt, I’m showing my classmates that I’m drug free.”
She and Ramon also encouraged their classmates to participate in events throughout the week, they said.
Every campus at HCISD will continue to host event to inform students of the importance of remaining free from drug usage until Oct. 31.
