PR2004 Dec 14 BUC

NEWS BRIEF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Wendy Jones 205-391-2310

Tuscaloosa – Members of the men’s basketball team at Shelton State Community College participated in “Red Ribbon Week” activities at Englewood Elementary School, one of Shelton State’s Adopt-a-School partners.

Accompanied by “Captain Buc,” the team’s mascot, the players spoke to the students about the importance of abstaining from drugs and distributed over 600 “Say No to Drugs” items to the students.

The annual celebration of National Red Ribbon week is observed the last week of October each year, with communities and students across America committing themselves to living drug-free lives.

National Red Ribbon week serves as a tribute to Special Agent Enrique Camarena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent, who was kidnapped and brutally tortured and murdered by drug traffickers in Mexico. Red Ribbon Week is the most far-reaching and well-known drug prevention event in America. The National Family Partnership, which coordinates Red Ribbon activities nationally, estimates that over 80 million Americans participate in Red Ribbon events.

The Adopt-A-School program, initiated in 1985 by the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, is a grassroots partnership between education and the business and private sectors of Tuscaloosa County. The purpose of the program is to utilize the vast amounts of human resources and talents of the business community to strengthen, enhance and enrich the quality of education in our 49 public schools of the Tuscaloosa County and City systems.

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