CALEXICO – “Drugs and a healthy mind don’t mix together,” Blanche Charles Elementary School Counselor Briset Wong said about living drug-free – the goal of Red Ribbon Week, which is a campaign focused on bringing light to drug use and supporting a substance-free lifestyle in schools and communities.
Red Ribbon Week was instituted following the gruesome murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a Special Agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration who grew up in Calexico, in 1985 by drug dealers he was investigating in Mexico. Many wished to remember his sacrifice after his passing.
The school dedicated the week of October 23 to October 27 to encourage youngsters to “make good choices” by promoting a series of activities and programs during the week to raise awareness about drug use.
One of the activities was getting REACH Air Medical Services to fly over to the school and land to talk to students about the importance of staying drug-free on Thursday, October 26.
“I think it’s cool that you get to bring in people that have already had that part of their lives and in their career goal and made the right choices,” REACH Air Medical Services Nurse Leslie Rubio, who is also a mom and have a husband who works as a nurse, said. “Hopefully it helped influence these kids to grow up and be like ‘Hey, that’s something I want to do’ and maybe make the right choices too.”
Vibrant and curious to see the REACH Air Medical Services helicopter landing in the school, students didn’t save any questions for the team.
The questions went from “From where is this helicopter coming from?” to “How long have you been doing this job?” while students disputed who was going to ask the questions first.
“It just puts into perspective that this is a real job,” Rubio said. “Seeing a face and like the airship we work out of is hopefully it’s just memorable for them.”
“Be Kind to Your Mind. Live Drug-Free” was the campaign’s theme for 2023 and Blanche Charles embraced it by asking students to dress in different colors and patterns every weekday.
Students were instructed to dress up like twins in order to help them connect friendship as a means of supporting mental health. They were advised to dress in neon to show gratitude and to share their light. They were instructed to mix and match their outfits in order to get them to think about a healthy mind that doesn’t match with drugs. Finally, the school requested them to wear red in support of a drug-free, healthy mind.
“This is very important for students because it’s something that has a purpose,” Wong said. “They are able to reflect.”