BIDDEFORD — It’s Red Ribbon Awareness Week, the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club’s second-annual event focused on steering the community toward healthy behaviors.

Most notably, the group is working to prevent the young people of Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach from falling into drug misuse and addiction.

The group has partnered with school officials and educators from the three communities as part of their programming. Rounding out the week, which began Monday and runs through Friday, the group will host a community-wide presentation tonight at Thornton Academy’s Garland Auditorium.

“There’s much talk about opiate abuse and substances abuse and use in the country and the one thing that seems to be overlooked is that prevention is one of the best methods to stop substance abuse and addiction,” Jim Godbout, a director of the Biddeford-Saco Rotary, said Tuesday. 

“We want to provide children the opportunity to make the healthy choice,” said Godbout, who is also co-chair of the Red Ribbon Committee.

Godbout said each school district has taken it upon themselves to implement drug prevention programming not only throughout this week, but also throughout the year. 

Biddeford School Superintendent Jeremy Ray said his School Department is “lucky” to have partnered with the “hard-working” Rotary Club as it continues to reinforce its ongoing message about the dangers of substance abuse.

“We are the recipients of the generosity of the Rotary Club and many different involved people in the community who really care about and want to prevent kids from going down a line of substance abuse,” Ray said Wednesday.

He said promoting that message is a “harder and harder job every year.”

Part of the anti-drug programming at Biddeford Schools includes daily messages and reminders about the dangers of substance abuse and impaired driving demonstrations, and students will also be taking chemical-free pledges at the end of the week, Ray said.

Godbout said the collaborative effort with the three school systems is “pretty unique.” According to the Rotary, every $1 spent on the prevention of drug misuse saves $7 in treatment. 

“We’re making a difference,” Godbout said.

John Suttie, superintendent for Regional School Unit 23, which covers Old Orchard Beach, agreed.

“We’re very, very grateful for the work of the Rotary Club and the Red Ribbon Committee for not only finding funding for activities for drug prevention for youth, but also for supporting the programming and bringing people together, and bringing people in, that can have an impact on our kids’ lives,” he said.

Old Orchard Beach schools currently use an elementary through high school curriculum that teaches drug prevention, focusing on alcohol abuse and other misused medications. In addition, the school district has a close partnership with the Old Orchard Beach Police Department, to facilitate additional programming, Suttie said.

“We have a lot going on in terms of those types of things. We have a very close relationship with our police department, so that makes anything that we want to do for our kids very seamless and easy,” he said.

But with the help of the Rotary Club, Suttie said, that programming is all the more meaningful to students.

“It’s really important to find things that you know will work and be impactful. Sometimes the best-laid plans don’t always work out that well,” he said. “We try to make sure that we’re very vigilant in sifting through options to see which ones would have the most impact on our kids.”

Tonight’s tri-community presentation will encourage individuals and their families to reflect upon current trends in drug use and what the community can do to promote healthy behaviors without the influences of illegal drugs or other misused substances.

A number of individuals are slated to speak at the event, including Bronwyn Barnett, executive director of Biddeford’s Community Bicycle Center and Ryan Esbjerg of Flex Your Face University, who will speak about the organization’s goals of celebrating life’s small moments.

Bill Paterson, director of Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition’s Project Alliance at the University of New England, will also speak, his topic is the importance of living drug-free and will give a presentation on “Marijuana and the Adolescent Brain.”
 
Every high school student will be receiving free Red Ribbon T-shirts, Godbout said — that’s 3,000 students wearing a shirt custom-designed by An Ho, a member of Thornton Academy’s Class of 2018, who won the Rotary Club’s T-shirt design contest.

Red Ribbon Awareness Week is sponsored by Biddeford Savings, Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution, P&C Insurance, Maine Magazine and CHHC’s Project Alliance.

If you cannot make tonight’s presentation, the event will be streamed live at livestream.com/tatvsac.

“We’re lucky to have some strong advocates and people that recognize the need for prevention measures in our school systems,” Godbout added. “Every single one of them recognizes the value in prevention, and they recognize that the mentorship that also takes place with Rotarians and students is a huge benefit to tour communities ands school systems.”

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.