Red Ribbon Week

Red Ribbon Week "Proud to be Drug Free"

BristowEnews.com Junior Staff Writer

Red Ribbon week is a week-long event that takes place at school or at home. During this week you learn how about how to avoid doing drugs and why. This week was started by a man named Enrique (Kiki) S. Camarena. Kiki joined the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) on June 28, 1974. One of Kiki's jobs at the DEA was to work on finding drug traffickers (people who transport drugs from place to place). Unfortunately, Kiki died when he was tracking the trail of the country's biggest marijuana traffickers.

Soon after his death, Congressman, Duncan Hunter, and his friend Henry Lozano started a club called, Camarena Club, in his hometown Calexico, California. The members of the club wore red ribbons and pledged to live drug free lives on-behalf of other Americans in honor of Kiki. Eventually, Red Ribbon Week spread throughout the country.

Red Ribbon Week became official when it was formalized in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan, who were honorary chairpersons. Red Ribbon week takes place in late October and lasts for eight days. During this Red Ribbon Week alone, more than 80 million people show their commitment to a free life by wearing the ribbon.

If you want to have a Red Ribbon Week, tell your Principal or School Advisor about it. Or, if you want to do it at home tell your parents, and go to http://www.drugfree.org or http://www.dea.gov with your parent's permission. Virginia was also one of the first states to adapt Red Ribbon Week. So get involved and be Drug Free!

 

Date Published: 2007-10-24 06:00:00

Section: Education,