Poster contest helps students learn DWI dangers

Staff Writer

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Riki Seat, the Portales/Roosevelt County DWI Program coordinator, cannot overstate the importance of getting children to understand the dangers of drinking and driving at an early age.

“It’s tremendously important to educate children as early as possible,” said Seat. “The younger kids start drinking, the higher the probability that they’ll develop a dependency on alcohol or drugs.”

To educated children, teens and young adults on the dangers of alcohol, Seat and the Portales/Roosevelt County DWI Program are actively involved in Red Ribbon week, a program sponsored by the National Family Partnership.

This year students in elementary schools in Dora, Elida, Floyd and Portales got to create posters

“When it comes to younger kids, the emphasis is on how to protect their brains,” Seat said. “So we go over everything from the importance of wearing seat belts, to how to ride in a car with someone who is impaired.”

The theme for the contest was love yourself and be drug free. Some kids conveyed that message by coloring a red ribbon signaling awareness for drunk driving related deaths, while others drew their pictures showing how to be safe in a car and to always wear a seat belt.

The Eastern New Mexico Art Club judged the photos and picked three winners from each grade.

“It was a great contest. The kids are extremely talented,” Seat said, “which makes it all the more important that we educated them from making bad decisions that could impact their lives.”

The Red Ribbon campaign, which has been a nationwide effort since 1988, runs in the last week of October every year and educates youth about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and promotes participation in drug prevention activities.

The Red Ribbon Campaign was started in honor of Enrique Camarena, a drug enforcement agent who was kidnapped and killed in Mexico in 1985. Friends and neighbors of Camarena began to wear red ribbons in his honor and upset at the destruction drugs and alcohol began forming local groups to fight back and eventually created a national effort.

FYI

First-grade winners:

• Issac Macias, James Elementary

• Aaliyah Dement, James Elementary

• Sam Kamara, James Elementary

• Second-grade winners

• Julianna Garcia, Floyd

• Isavell Howard , James Elementary

• Maryse Bustamante, James Elementary

Third-grade winner

• Garick Tomlinson, Valencia

• Jesus Ramirez, Valencia

• Alyssa Neighbors, Valencia

Fourth-grade winners

• Rae Ruiz, Valencia

• Mariah Rodriguez, Valencia

• Mason Pritchett, Dora

Fifth-grade winners

• Tayli Freed, Dora

• Elijah Pritchet, Lindsey-Steiner

• Morgan Griffith, Floyd

Sixth-grade winners

• Sebastian Tapia, Lindsey-Steiner Elementary

• Victor Alvarado, Lindsey-Steiner Elementary

• McKenzie Garcia, Lindsey-Steiner Elementary