Sinapalo school wins gate/wall decorating contest

Students and some law enforcers join the NMI Red Ribbon committee members during a roadside waving for an anti-drug awareness campaign along Beach Road across Kristo Rai Church in Garapan Friday afternoon. (Ferdie De La Torre)

Sinapalo Elementary School on Rota is this year’s winner of Red Ribbon Gate/Wall Decorating Contest in the CNMI, according to NMI Red Ribbon’s committee chair Gregory Arriola.

Arriola said Sinapalo Elementary School bested several other schools in the CNMI to get the perpetual trophy.

This year’s Red Ribbon campaign theme was “Send a Message. Stay Drug Free.”

Arriola said schools on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota were asked to decorate their walls at their school gates with the Red Ribbon theme.

Last year’s Red Ribbon Gate Decorating Contest winner was Dandan Elementary School.

The Red Ribbon campaign is intended to raise awareness about the dangers of drug abuse. The campaign has reached millions of children and has been recognized by U.S. Congress.

From Oct. 23 to 31, communities nationwide send out its anti-drug message by wearing a red ribbon. In the CNMI, Red Ribbon committee members have been doing drug awareness presentations in various schools this October.

Arriola and Edward Talbot, the Drug Enforcement Administration resident agent-in-charge for Guam and the CNMI, led Friday afternoon’s Red Ribbon’s roadside waving for motorists along Beach Road in front of Kristo Rai Church in Garapan.

CNMI Customs, District Court employees, Saipan Southern High School, and other schools participated in the 30-minute roadside waving for drug awareness.

Talbot said the roadside waving is part of the Red Ribbon event sponsored by DEA and other contributing agencies and entities throughout the United States, the Marianas, and U.S. territories.

Arriola said the red ribbon was adopted as a symbol of the movement that gives tribute to one of the DEA officers, Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who was kidnapped and killed by a drug cartel while investigating drug traffickers in Mexico in 1985.

The first Red Ribbon Celebration was organized in 1986 by a grassroots organization of parents concerned about the destruction caused by alcohol and drug abuse.

“It’s been going on for a few years now and it’s really taking some great strives,” Talbot said.

Guam started the program a little bit longer than the CNMI, Talbot said, but that CNMI has been doing great job on the three islands.

Talbot said they did an awareness campaign at the Marianas High School last Friday and in Oleai Thursday.

“It’s been a great event. It’s a drug awareness program to inform the youth to stay away from drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and any other illegal substances,” Talbot said.

The campaign provides communities with a forum to bring together parents, schools, and businesses to find new and innovative ways to keep children drug free.

Research shows that children are less likely to use alcohol and other dugs when parents and other role models are clear and consistent in their opposition to substance use and abuse.