Rufus E. Payne Elementary won the third-place title and a $100 award in the nationwide Positive Promotion Red Ribbon Week contest. The school placed based on the events and activities coordinated last year in celebration of Red Ribbon Week.
Positive Promotion magazines are sent to schools across the nation, and Rufus E. Payne Elementary is featured in the September/October issue announcing the start of Red Ribbon Week on October 23 – 31, 2011.
Rufus E. Payne Elementary’s teachers, staff and parents united to become involved in the students’ pledge to be drug free. Teachers placed the “Celebrate a Drug Free Life” ribbons on all classroom doors while each grade level decorated paper banners to be hung in the cafeteria.
School-wide contests brought an air of excitement about Red Ribbon Week. Students in kindergarten through second-grade entered a drawing contest; third-, fourth- and fifth-graders took part in an essay contest.
To show that they “Stay on Track for Success – Drug Free,” students and adults dressed in red and marched through the streets of Jacksonville, calling attention to Red Ribbon Week. Later, students participated in math lessons that incorporated elements of the march. Teachers read books, articles and poems to their classes stressing the importance of a drug free lifestyle.
For more than 20 years, Red Ribbon Week has been the time when communities encourage healthy lifestyles and teach students about the dangers of drugs. It is now the country’s largest anti-drug endeavor. Red Ribbon Week was officially proclaimed by Congress in 1988. Each fall, Positive Promotions holds a contest to reward the most effective Red Ribbon Week programs.
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