Youth task force and NHS mark Red Ribbon Week

For several decades, the ribbons worn by students during Red Ribbon Week have been supplied by the Brotherhood Protectorate Order of Elks. Representing the Nevada Elks Lodge 564 was Elroy the Elk who, Wednesday morning, greeted students as they entered Nevada High School.

Johannes Brann

Wednesday’s meeting of the Vernon County Youth Task Force was held at the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center during national Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 23-31. This is a time when schools and community groups focus on an anti-drug abuse message.

Earlier that day, Nevada Elks Lodge 564 had their mascot — Elroy the Elk — on hand at Nevada High School at 7:30 a.m. to join counselor, Tom Geeding, School Resource Officer Dan Miller, Assistant Principal Eric Schneider and Principal Jerry Whalen to welcome students to school.

For several decades, local lodges have taken it upon themselves to supply schools with the ribbons for students to wear during Red Ribbon Week.

With a quiet but firm voice, Jim Marshall, whose son, Cody, died of an opioid overdose in 201l told a Thursday morning assembly at Nevada High School, “Apparently, being a pallbearer is OK rather than being a snitch. But I challenge you to be proactive and speak up because 80 percent of heroin users are first addicted to pills.” Hardly a sound could be heard as he spoke with a quiet but firm voice on prescription drug abuse, the story of Cody and his as a parent and the need for people to find positive coping methods for the stresses which come in every person’s life.

Johannes Brann

Explained NHS counselor, Tommy Geeding, “Last year, due to the rising cost of ribbons, we switched to stickers and Lodge 564 supplies a red sticker for each student, at each of the county schools for each day of Red Ribbon Week. That’s 16,000 stickers! We’re really grateful for their generosity and partnership.”

Also early on Wednesday, students Felicity DeSpain, Devin Johnson and Julia Daniel — all juniors at NHS — were out planting tulip bulbs at various locations in the front of Nevada High School.

Looking up at one point, Johnson said, “Instead of a line, we put seven of them in a circle with one in the middle.”

Nevada High School juniors Julia Daniel, Felicity DeSpain and Devin Johnson were part of the students from the Youth Enrichment Services club and students with the Tiger Store, who are planting 200 red tulip bulbs as part of Red Ribbon Week. Purchased with grant funds, a further 100 were planted at Nevada Middle School. Next spring, the profusion of red will serve as a reminder to be drug-free around the time of prom.

Johannes Brann

Red Ribbon Week events at NHS are overseen by the 20 students in the Youth Enrichment Services group for which Geeding serves as faculty advisor. In planning for the week’s events, Geeding invited Sherrie Close, prevention coordinator with Pathways Community Health to attend a YES group meeting in September.

Through Close, the YES group has been able to apply for and receive two $500 grants for several years, one of which they use for Red Ribbon Week activities. The group had already planned to use part of the grant to pay for a speaker at a high school assembly on Thursday, Oct. 26.

Referring to the various ideas Close presented, Geeding said, “The idea the kids really latched onto was planting red tulip bulbs. We’re planting them during Red Ribbon Week and we hope they’ll be in bloom and remind us of a drug-free lifestyle about the time of prom.”

He went on to thank 54 Feed and Seed who agreed to obtain them at cost. Using $200 of the grant, they were able to obtain 300 red tulip bulbs. With 200 being planted at various locations around the front of the high school, the other 100 are being used at the middle school by agri-science teacher, Amy Hemphill.

“I had some of my eighth-grade students use the wood from some old pallets to make two planters four feet long, two feet wide and two feet deep,” said Hemphill. “We’re putting these by the benches on the hiking trail next to the middle school.”

A total of 43 bulbs went into the planters with the remaining 57 being planted in front of the middle school.

The YES group differs from other student clubs in not having officers but instead has project leaders who recruit others as they take charge of organizing and running a particular project. Seniors Emma Cheaney and Karishma Goswami headed up the Red Ribbon Week events with the pair, on Thursday, introducing the assembly speaker, Jim Marshall.

Addressing the entire student body and faculty of NHS at the Ella J. Maxwell Center for the Performing Arts, Marshall presented the story of his son, Cody, his death to opioid addiction and the need for people to find positive coping skills when they are under stress.

“If there’s anything that might take us off planet earth, or what we refer to in the Bible as Armageddon, it will be death from opioid drug overdose,” said Marshall. “This is not an attack from some outside enemy; we’re doing it to ourselves.”

In 2011, when Marshall began making presentations, drug overdose deaths amounted to one every 19 minutes, at present it is one every eight minutes.

Marshall’s son had used opioid prescription medications to cope with what he perceived to be stresses in his life.

“You know, unless you’re walking in someone else’s shoes, it’s real easy to look at them and say, ‘Stress? What possible stress could you have?’” said Marshall.

He spoke about how adults view young people this way and how even children will look at the clothes or family of others they know and think they cannot possibly have any serious problems because of all the “stuff” they have.

The 38-year teacher and active track coach said, “Unlike people, drugs do not discriminate. They ruin the lives of the rich and middle class as well as the poor. Just look at my son, Cory.”

Marshall spoke about friends and family seeing things but not speaking up.

“Apparently, being a pallbearer is OK rather than being a snitch,” said Marshall. “But I challenge you to be proactive and speak up because 80 percent of heroin users are first addicted to pills. And sometimes it begins with a legitimate prescription. So challenge your friends and intervene to get them help.”

Throughout his talk, Marshall repeated, “The right thing to do is often hard, real hard, while the easy thing to do is wrong. It takes no courage, guts or character. Do the right thing, even when it’s hard or unpopular.”

The youth task force meeting heard a report from the group working on plans for the character word for the second quarter — December through February — which is respect. They unveiled a design which featured the message of “Give respect to earn respect and earn respect to give respect.”

NHS junior, Ashton Simon, who was at the meeting said, “This will go real well with our Respect Others conference we’re hosting in January with students from a number of area high schools.”

She said there will be three break-out sessions with students rotating between one on bullying, another on coping with stress in life and a third being an open discussion session.

As usual, the meeting closed with representatives of various groups announcing upcoming events. Included among these was the five-year birthday celebration for Healthy Nevada which will take place on Nov. 16 at Cottey College. Also mentioned was November’s close to the 18-month study led by director of nursing services for the R-5 district, Cora Anderson. Funded by a grant from Johnson & Johnson, the most identified barrier to health services in the county is transportation; more will be said about this in next month’s final report.