The D.A.R.E. program your kids go through in Grade Six is a lot different than the one you experienced.
Timmins Police D.A.R.E. co-ordinator, Const. Rick Lemieux, says what used to be “Drug Abuse Resistance Education” is now “Define, Assess, Respond and Evaluate”.
It has expanded to be a program to teach life skills and decision-making.
“So whenever you have a problem, you define what the problem is, Lemieux outlines. “ Then you assess your choices and when you’re assessing you look at the risks, you look at the consequences and then you respond by getting all the facts and you respond with the best choice for you. And at the end of it, you always evaluate to see if it was a good choice and if you would do the same thing next time.”
Two-hundred Grade 6 students from French Catholic schools in Timmins will be celebrated next Wednesday at their D.A.R.E. graduation.
Mayor George Pirie and a lawyer will be guest speakers. Lemieux says they are role models who will talk about working to succeed.
“Nobody’s just going to give you things. If you want something, you have to go and get it. You have to work for it,” says Lemieux. “So I’m always trying to find local people who sacrificed and worked hard to get to where they’re at to come and talk to the kids about their journey, and what they had to do to get to where they wanted to be.”
Parents and grandparents are welcome at the ceremony at Ecole Secondaire Catholique Theriault at 9:30am Wednesday.