Students educating others about drug dangers
<p>Five students from Mineral County attended the annual Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America conference in Washington D.C. where they met with Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines, who support funding for the program, which is an anti-drug coalition for teens. (Photos courtesy of Chuck Sandeford. )</p>
“Youth getting a voice in policy to fund and uphold prevention is vital to me,” said Taryn Ververis, when asked about his recent trip to Washington, D.C., as part of Elevate Montana.
The group, composed of students from Mineral and Sanders counties, joined 300 other young people for the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s 26th Annual National Leadership Forum.
Ververis, who is a junior from Superior, attended the forum, along with four other Mineral County students including Emma Dubois and Courtney Cheesman from St. Regis and Mackenzie Spence from Alberton. Cheesman’s sister, Ashley Cheesman, who has graduated and is attending the University of Montana, saved up her own travel expenses to go on the trip. They were joined by students from Noxon, Thompson Falls, and Plains. A total of nine students attended, along with Elevate Community Coalition Director, Chuck Standeford.
“This year the Elevate Coalition was asked to present at the conference and did an exceptional job. We addressed the issues that we face working in a rural area,” said Standeford.
“We are considered a ‘frontier’ town,” said Alberton junior, Mackenzie Spence, when discussing their presentation to other groups. “Rural communities are considered bigger than ours.”
At the forum, students attend workshops on leadership, drug abuse prevention, and have the opportunity to meet with congressmen, senators, and congressional staff on Capitol Hill.
After meeting with the group, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., commented on a Facebook post that it’s “always great to have young Montanans voice their concerns about our communities. I met with some impressive students from the Elevate Youth Coalition who were in Washington, D.C., raising awareness about substance abuse challenges facing Montana communities.”
“It was super cool to meet Sen. Daines,” said Spence. Daines, along with Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., agreed to vote for continued funding for the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which funds the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions. The local coalition focuses on changing the culture of underage drinking and prescription drug abuse in both Mineral and Sanders counties.
“In Elevate, we put emphasis on creating relationships and that’s exactly what we wanted to do with the lawmaking body of our nation. The speeches we gave to these leaders talked about the effects of prevention and how important it is to the youth, as well as what would happen without these federal grants,” explained Ververis.
The students also had the opportunity to see the sights in D.C. including visits to the Holocaust Museum, the National Archives, Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History and the Library of Congress. They also toured the Capitol and went to Sen. Tester’s office. They saw the flag that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written about. And they even got to catch an NBA basketball game where the Wizards played the Warriors.
“It was a lot fun, and we got to meet people from all across the U.S. and Puerto Rico,” said Spence.