ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607050124
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N4 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER L. BOYD STAFF WRITER
WHILE kids laughed and played at a Roanoke summer camp, they also learned that fooling around with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes can have serious consequences.
The theme was "Healthy Choices" and the focus primarily was on smoking during the two-week camp at Wasena Park organized by Blue Ridge Community Services for nearly two dozen sixth- through eighth-graders.
The anti-smoking emphasis with the middle school kids is the most effective way to keep children from developing substance-abuse problems, according to Virginia Hardin, coordinator of the agency's Prevention Plus program.
"Tobacco is a gateway drug. Research indicates that people who have a problem with drugs start out with cigarettes. Once a child makes a decision to smoke a cigarette, they start eroding away at their values," and other addictions may follow, Hardin said.
According to Carleen Johnson-Alleyne, camp organizer and substance abuse specialist at Blue Ridge, more than 25,000 elementary, middle and high school students in Virginia each year try cigarettes for the first time.
The agenda for the camp, which was free, included talks from former substance abusers, creative-writing lessons, and trips to Smith Mountain Lake and to Booker T. Washington's home. The kids also played various games, participated in craft-making sessions, and performed skits they wrote to explain why smoking, alcohol- and drug-abuse are unhealthy.
Amber Clingenpeel, an eighth-grader at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, and Katrina Robinson, a sixth-grader at Ruffner Middle, said the most important thing they learned from the camp was how to make good decisions. Clingenpeel said, "If you make a bad decision, it could mess your life up." Robinson said they also learned that people shouldn't do anything they don't want to do. They always have a choice.
One of the guest speakers was a former Patrick Henry High School football, track and wrestling star, Brian Jones. He told the campers he was expelled from school just before the end of 11th grade for having a few cans of beer in his locker.
Jones said that experience began a 10-year downhill slope. "I was receiving letters from colleges like Virginia Tech and other big schools wanting me to come there and play football. After I was expelled, the letters stopped coming. My whole life was going down the tubes."
Thinking life had nothing better to offer, Jones said, he began selling drugs, smoking and drinking continually and was arrested. While serving a year in jail, he began working for his GED. In 1994 he received his diploma, and that was the last time he used any addictive substance, he said.
Jones said peer pressure was one of the things to which he attributed his downfall.
Jones encouraged the kids to use the experiences and mistakes of others to learn what not to do. "If I could reach one, maybe two kids, it would be a dream," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Danielle Bush, 10; Tony Martin, 13; and Joseph Delp,by CNB12, make music during a two-week camp at Wasena Park. Blue Ridge
Community Services organized the camp for 22 sixth- through
eighth-graders with the theme "Healthy Choices." color ROGER
HART/Staff