Leadership class leads Red Ribbon Movement through spirit week

The Leadership class brought the Red Ribbon Campaign to SHS during the week of  Oct. 24-28 to raise awareness about the harmful impacts of drugs and alcohol, as well as to promote a safe school environment.

The 2016 National Red Ribbon Week Theme is “YOLO. Be Drug Free,” which campaigns to encourage students to make better decisions because they “only live once.”

One look around campus showed high participation.

To start the week, hundreds of students dressed up in pajamas on “Put Drugs to Bed” Monday, tie-dye on “Don’t Get Tied up in Drugs” Tuesday, pink “On Wednesdays, We Wear Pink” in support of breast cancer, sports team gear on “Team Up Against Drugs” Thursday, and patriotic colors on “Drugs Stop with U.S.” Friday. On Friday, the Leadership class ushered everyone outside and gave people red ribbons to tie around the big trees in the quad.

“Red Ribbon Week is a drug awareness week, and we aimed at promoting awareness of the prevalence of substance abuse,”  ASB president Mitali Shanbhag said. “It was an effective effort to promote a good environment and a safe atmosphere on campus.”

To further amp up the spirit week on campus, the spirit commission put up posters, while senior class vice president Jessy Liu made a cover picture for the Red Ribbon Facebook event page to remind students to dress up.

“We distributed tie-dye pins and ‘I choose to be drug free’ stickers during the week that students got for free to show spirit,” head spirit commissioner Jacqueline Schwartz said.

Students also posted pictures with the #SHSRedRibbonWeek hashtag to show their spirit and potentially win a $25 Tpumps gift card given out by the spirit commission.

To promote the event, the weekend before the spirit week, ASB designated spirit days to each commissions and classes to post pictures of what they will be wearing the night before each day.

For example, along with the Homecoming/Spring Fling commissioners, sophomore class officers were publicized “Put Drugs to Sleep” Monday by dressing up in pajamas and taking pictures at Wildwood Park to hype up the spirit.

“The theme for Monday was a pun on how you wear your pajamas to bed, thus putting 'drugs to bed,’” sophomore class president Cameron Lin said. “We brought our stuffed animals and pillows and had a great time.”

As the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention campaign, the Red Ribbon Movement seeks  to inspire and empower youth to say no to drugs, alcohol, bullying, and other challenges within communities.

“As students, it is important to be constantly reminded of staying healthy and drug-free, and we hope Red Ribbon Week could draw more attention to these issues,” senior Megana Saripella said.