SADD hosts annual Red Ribbon Week
Junior Taylor Claussen hold the safety lights while participating in SADD’s Red Ribbon Week. The week promoted healthy habits in MHS students, whether it be in things like drugs or every day actions.
November 4, 2019
Students Against Destructive Decisions took up the fight to combat the day-to-day routine of fall last week by hosting student activities for Red Ribbon Week, an annual event observed in the last week of October to advocate for a drug-free America.
Members of SADD pose for a photo in front of their signed poster. The poster allowed for students to pledge to a drug free America.
“[It] just kind of encapsulates all of it like ‘don’t do drugs; don’t drive distractedly; wear your seatbelt…not drinking alcohol,’ things like that,” SADD officer Nichol Savage, junior, said.
SADD made sure to include both West and East Campuses in the activities, starting the week with a raffle to win gift cards to various restaurants around Manhattan.
One of the most recognized and notable activities SADD does for RRW every year is the pledge signing, where the club encourages students to sign a large banner — which will be displayed all year — that asks them to commit to being drug free.
Signatures of students who pledged to SADD’s cause rest on their poster as other fill in the spaces with their names. The pledge was part of Red Ribbon Week, an event meant to highlight the importance of safer living in teenagers.
According to SADD officer Desiree Cain, junior, the club followed up the pledge with a fun play-on-words seatbelt check. SADD aimed to encourage students to drive safely and wear seatbelts by checking whether students wore when entering the parking lot, and handing out Smarties to students who practiced safe driving. Those who went unbuckled, however, received a Dum-Dum — a clever play on words just in time for the Halloween holiday.
“We’re trying to say ‘hey look at all these people who are choosing not to make these destructive decisions,’” Savage said. “You’re not the minority, you’re not alone if you choose not to make decisions, even if you feel like everyone else is.”
