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Schools

DARE Program Recognizes its Outstanding Students

The South Attleboro Lions and the Village Lions provided an awards dinner for the 18 outstanding DARE students from the three Attleboro middle schools.

Every fifth-grade student in the Attleboro public school system is exposed to the DARE education program. On Wednesday night, 18 of those young people were selected for special recognition.

Chosen by their teachers, the students best emulate the goals of the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program: scholastic improvement and a good attitude, performance in class, involvement in a community service project, and exceptionally, motivated students who are free of drug abuse and violence.

Attleboro DARE Officer Tom Wellman asked the fifth-grade teachers to select not just the best students with the best grades, but the best all-around kids doing the right things.

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Officer Wellman spends one hour a week for 15 weeks with the 18 fifth-grade classes at the three middle schools. The premise of the program it to educate the students before their peers influence them to experiment with drugs and alcohol. The program, according to Wellman, has an added benefit of teaching good citizenship.

Wednesday's award dinner also honored the life of Lion Dave Allard, who began the DARE program in Attleboro with Officer Steven Shepard. They created a college scholarship that these DARE awardees will have an opportunity to apply for when they are seniors in high school. This year's recipient is Kerstin McAndrews, who will be attending Stonehill College in the fall.

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Each state elects one student to represent its DARE chapters at the national level, and Attleboro can proudly boast that its own Sarah Killough in the Massachusetts representatibe. She spoke to the students and congratulated them and reminded them to stay close to the values taught in the DARE program.

  • The honored students from are: Dan Becker, Gianna Fraielli, E'la Hall Kelleher, Victoria Lussier, Samuel McKenzie and Troy Nason.
  • The honored students from are: Hannah Adams, Julia Cook, Tristan Dam, Lucy Medeiros, James Nordberg and Ryan Whiting.
  • The honored students from are: Jenna Berg, Michael Maher, Lydia Masse, Anna Nelson, Brian
    Ulbrich and Elizabeth Wachta.

Plenty of community dignitaries were on hand to congratulate the students on their accomplishments, including state Reps. Betty Poirier and George Ross, Police Chief Kyle Heagney, City Council President Frank Cook and Mayor Kevin Dumas. When the DARE program was state-funded, it was offered in 351 communities. Today, it is offered in just 20 communities, and Massachusetts DARE coordinator Domenic DiNatale thanked Mayor Dumas and the police department for continuing to provide funding for this important program.

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