Sheriff's office presents DARE essay winners
The county Sheriff's Office concluded the school year's Drug Abuse Resistance Education essay contest and announced the top winners from a pool of nearly 1,500 fifth-graders in 15 elementary schools, both public and private, in the county.
First place went to Bailey Knight from Slippery Rock Area Elementary School. Bailey won a weekend stay at Great Wolf Lodge, a national resort with locations throughout the country.
Chicora Elementary's Katie Williams won second place and was awarded a year's membership to Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
Third place went to Grace Christy, a Dassa McKinney Elementary School student. Christy won a bicycle and helmet.
The essays were completed as the culmination of 10 weeks of lessons for all of the students. The classes focused on drug abuse and prevention. Every year, the department holds the classes across the county and Deputy Tony Sawl, who has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience and is one of the senior instructors with the drug prevention program, said the classes have an immediate, real-world impact.
“These students in this area, they are not uneducated about the opioid addiction crisis right now. They hear things. They see things. They know there's an issue,” said Sawl. “With this area, all the problems here, it's good to have these programs and give the kids skills for their toolbox that they could use for the rest of their lives. As adults, we could also learn lessons from this and make positive decisions.”
The Sheriff's Office selected the top three essays.
Sawl estimated that the Sheriff's Office received a little over $28,000 in donations from participating companies.
Along with the top three winners, other students received awards. Penn Christian Academy student Josiah F. came in 10th place and Sawl got him a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey and a hockey stick signed by Evgeni Malkin, a Russian hockey player with the Penguins.
“I love it,” Sawl said. “It's great seeing these kids smile and realize they put a lot of effort in their essays. They state in the essays how the DARE program will reflect on their lives in the future, how they will use the program to make better decisions in their life. Choosing positive over negative.”
