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DARE Games help kids remember what program teaches
Carlsbad Current-Argus - June 15, 2005
Pingpong balls were flying, and kids and adults alike were having a good time Tuesday during the DARE Games at the Riverwalk Recreation Center.
DARE --Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- children who participated in the program this year or in past years were on hand at the center to join in the fun.
The center is equipped with basketball goals, pingpong tables and much more, and the students and adults were making full use of the facility during the three-hour event.
Carl Guillermo, DARE officer and member of the Carlsbad Police Department, said the event was something local law enforcement officers wanted to do for the children.
"The officers wanted to do a community service project," Guillermo said. "They wanted to do something with the kids. They are here playing games with the kids and having contests, and they also have some prizes for the kids."
Guillermo has been with the DARE program for 10 years and said this summertime DARE event is a good way to keep what the children learned during the school year fresh in their minds.
"This is a good thing for them to remind themselves what they have learned," Guillermo said.
He said DARE T-shirts and stickers were some of the prizes for the children.
Kelly Calicoat, DARE officer and Eddy County Sheriff's Department deputy, was on hand for the event. Calicoat, who teamed up with 11-year-old Jesstin Gadbury in a doubles pingpong contest, said the best part of the DARE program is the chance it provides to communicate with children.
As a law enforcement agent, Calicoat said he has seen the results of drug use on people. He said it is important to get the message across to youngsters early on about the dangers of using drugs.
"It is absolutely essential that we get ahold of them at this age because of the peer pressure they are going through at this age and even younger," Calicoat said. "What we do is give them a few lessons, where they can take the stuff that we teach them and maybe take it home and live their lives by it so they don't get in trouble."
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