Jefferson City area fifth-graders took time out of their summer vacation to sing, dance and act during a camp all about promoting a drug-free lifestyle.
The students, 46 total, will perform in October during Red Ribbon Week, a time when schools are dedicated to teaching children the dangers of drugs and alcohol. But for now, they spent last week rehearsing skits and dances daily until performing for parents and loved ones Friday at Cedar Hill Elementary School.
They are known as Safety Kids, a selected group of fifth-grade students sponsored by the Council for Drug Free Youth (CDFY). The program has been in existence for about 30 years, said CDFY Executive Director Joy Sweeney. When Red Ribbon Week rolls around, the pint-sized performers will act four times a day at different elementary schools for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Sweeney said the Safety Kids play an important role in drug and alcohol education because research shows peer-to-peer mentoring is the most effective. In the skits, children pretend to be in their first week of middle school - a time when kids are likely to be first introduced to substances, Sweeney said. Middle school is typically the age of onset, she added, with the average age of exposure to drugs and alcohol between 11-14.
"In middle school, I bet every one of them will be in a place when they have to make a choice, and that's sad," Sweeney said.
The skits, intertwined with a relating song and dance, focus on "just saying no" specifically to prescription pills, cigarettes and beer. One Safety Kid plays the antagonist, telling friends she knows how to make their party more fun.
"I know just what we need: beer!" she said in one skit.
Her idea is met with a roaring "no," and her friends tell her they don't need alcohol for a good time. Showing children, even as young as kindergarten, ways to resist drugs and alcohol can be the beginning of a drug-free life, Sweeney said.
"(In middle school), the lowest common denominator is being seen as cool," Sweeney said. "Right now, when they're in elementary school they all strive to please - each other, their parents, their teachers. Somewhere in the middle it shifts to where it's antagonistic, and we're trying to make that shift not happen and say: it's cool to be a good person."
Safety Kid camper Ava Meinhardt, 10, said she's looking forward to October and teaching her peers - from Eugene, Fatima, Russellville and more - how to lead healthy lives.
"I'm looking forward to everybody liking it and people saying no after we're done and never doing drugs whenever they're older," she said.
The same goes for Alfred Johnson, 10, who said the biggest lesson he learned from the weeklong Safety Kids camp is drugs and alcohol can have deadly effects.
"If you aren't drug free then you could have a shorter life," Johnson said.
The public will have an opportunity to see the Safety Kids performance from 5-7:30 p.m. Monday at the Capital Mall's Community Room during an ice cream social benefiting the CDFY. Show Me Players, seventh-grade performers and Uplift, a group of ninth-grade students, will also showcase their acts.