Liverpool Elks
Lodge No.2348 recently completed their Just Say “No” Program. It is a program that is sponsored and paid
for by the Liverpool Elks Lodge. This
program was offered at six schools in the Liverpool Central School District and
approximately 450 children participated. The Just Say “No” Program is a program
that is sponsored and paid for by the Liverpool Elks Lodge No.2348. It is offered to students at the third grade
level at no cost to the schools. The
idea behind the program is to provide the students with information about
smoking, drinking, drug use, as well as peer pressure, so that when confronted
with these items they can make a consciences choice to avoid them.
The program
runs for six weeks, one day per week for about an hour. We like to provide the program first thing in
the morning, right after school starts.
All students involved in the program receive tee shirts which we ask
each to wear each Friday throughout the program. We divided the classes into two groups; some
students receive red shirts the others blue.
This creates a little competition between the groups to get the students
involved in wearing their shirts.
Each week a
guest speaker comes to the school to presents a session on one of the
following; smoking and tobacco products, alcohol abuse, addictions and peer
pressure. Each of the sessions provide
the students with facts about the topic regarding why people do it, why they
shouldn’t and some of the negative impacts on them if they were to choose to
use them.
Here is a brief
description of each session.
Smoking: The presenter speaks to the students about
why people might smoke and why they shouldn’t.
This is done with questions and open discussions. The speaker provides the students with
reasons to avoid smoking; such as illnesses that can be gotten from smoking,
the cost of smoking, people’s desire to be away from smokers, etc. A lung machine is also brought to the school
to display what a lung looks like and also what will happen to the lung when
infected by emphysema and cancer. They
also talk about ways to help people who smoke to quit.
Drinking: A volunteer from Prevention Network presents
a session on drinking. Discussing reasons not to drink and what are some of the
affects on people who do drink. The
presenter has a short video tape about a cat that drinks too much and becomes
possessive of its milk dish. The video
shows how an addiction can change some ones personality and disposition.
Addiction / choices: This program deals with drugs and everyday
items that can cause addictions, things such as caffeine, sugar as well as
prescription drugs and medicine. Many common
products have substances in them that may affect people differently and this
session shows the students something as simple as coca-cola can have an affect
on someone by over use.
Peer Pressure: This program is
provided by Prevention Network. They
talk to the students about what it is and how to handle peer pressure from
classmates to do drugs, drink and smoke.
The last week
of the program is a pizza party with an awards ceremony to present prizes to
the top three poster winners. All
students receive "Just Say No" pencils.
At no time do
we try to set stead fast rules or to lecture.
The whole point is to hopefully provide students with information and
facts so that they can make their own choices.
