It is graduation season for the local schools; kids are graduating from pre-school, finishing elementary school and of course Howe Sound Secondary School marked its graduation last week but this week one of the annual graduation ceremonies is taking on a new format.
The RCMP is leading the format change because the graduation ceremony in question is the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) graduation.
Traditionally, each school with a class of kids taking DARE training has its own graduation celebration. This year, instead of holding a series of individual ceremonies at each school, the DARE trainers decided to have one large ceremony.
The ceremony is scheduled for Howe Sound Secondary School on Thursday (June 16) at 6 p.m.
Grade 5 students from Brackendale, Garibaldi Highlands, Mamquam, Valleycliffe and Stawamus Elementary schools will get certificates of graduation and DARE t-shirts.
There is a total of about 240 students graduating. Each student wrote an essay about what they learned through DARE and the students with the best essays will read their essay at the graduation ceremony.
Const. Roshan Pinto coordinates the DARE program in 樱桃视频and he said the change was made mainly to make the annual DARE graduation a larger event.
"By having a large ceremony we show the kids they are not in it by themselves," said Pinto. "It makes it a larger deal."
Pinto, a former schoolteacher, said he feels the DARE program is effective but he admits there is no data to support his belief.
"There are studies currently under way to track the progress of our DARE grads," he said.
The DARE program is supported in part by the 樱桃视频Breakfast Club and the group is hosting a fundraising golf tournament for DARE.
The tournament is scheduled for June 14 at 1 p.m. with a dinner to follow. The golfing is at Garibaldi Springs and the dinner is at 樱桃视频Valley.
The cost to enter is $100 and organizer Dave Hildreth has full details. He can be reached be sending an e-mail to david.r.hildreth@ clarica.com.
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