
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 25, 1994                   TAG: 9404260020
SECTION: NEWSFUN                    PAGE: NF-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

D.A.R.E. CAMP MUCH LIKE ANY OTHER

If you go to D.A.R.E. Camp, you don't have to bring your toothbrush - the camp gives you one. If fact, all you have to bring are your clothes. Everything else is provided for free.

Any pupil who finishes sixth grade at Andrew Lewis Middle School can go to Salem's D.A.R.E. Camp. Roanoke City Schools also have a camp, and Roanoke County is planning to start a D.A.R.E. camp soon.

D.A.R.E. camp is a lot like any other camp, except that in the evening, there's a D.A.R.E. lesson and sometimes special speakers.

During the day, you can ride horses, swim, fish (if you catch one, the camp will freeze it and you can take it home with you at week's end), canoe, hike, tube ride, play softball and volleyball and participate in an olympics. Low and high ropes courses are a real challenge and help you learn to plan carefully, make decisions and work as part of a team.

Two police officers and a D.A.R.E. officer help volunteers and counselors make this a fun, exciting experience. Spending so much time with police officers helps you to develop a better understanding and relationship with them.

The weekly sessions include 30 boys or girls (alternating each week). For more information, contact Lt. Jeffrey Dudley, 375-3078.

In Roanoke City, all rising sixth-graders who have graduated from the program are eligible to attend camp for free. For information, call Officer Steve Dalton at 981-2134.

For information on a D.A.R.E. camp on your area, contact your D.A.R.E. officer.

by CNB