Poster contest highlights substance abuse

Staff report

lisbon

For years, the Knights of Columbus has been active in the fight against all forms of substance abuse.

That activity includes the Columbiana County Elementary Schools annual Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest, which is under way.

The purpose of the program is to promote local awareness among young people of the major societal problems of alcohol and drug abuse, and to help turn this situation around. The poster contest gives a positive outlook for children to embrace and to help carry them through the peer pressures to use alcohol and drugs.

Students are encouraged to develop an original poster and slogan idea designed to discourage their peers from experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

The Knights of Columbus Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest is open to all boys and girls age 8 to 14.

The contest, endorsed and supported by the Columbiana County Educational Service Center and ADAPT Coalition, is being offered to all Columbiana County elementary schools (about 5,000 students) with winning entries progressing to the district and state levels of competition and on to the national and international level.

The winning entries will serve as the basis for the series of anti- substance-abuse posters. Creative credit is given to the young artists. The posters are distributed throughout the countries in which the Knights of Columbus has a presence.

The county contest serves as a model for the Knights of Columbus National program and has the potential to reach millions of elementary-school students.

The Knights of Columbus, along with the county schools, hope to further implement or develop existing programs in the county for 15- to 18-year-olds. This will give all students the opportunity for 10 years of awareness and reinforcement.

It is intended to create a positive outlook for students to embrace and to help them successfully resist the peer pressures to use alcohol and drugs.

The hope is that through the Substance Abuse Awareness Poster Contest, the county will enjoy the experience of providing a positive outlet for the youths in its schools and communities.

The artwork created not only will instill pride in the artists, but will send a message throughout the schools and communities that drug and alcohol abuse is a “dead end.”