Red Ribbon Week essay winners selected

Dyer County schools held a countywide Red Ribbon Week essay contest for this year's anti-drug campaign. School guidance counselors selected 15 winners, who received cash prizes from the Dyer County Sheriff's Department. Front row, from left: Destiny Tice, Taylor Rushing, Briar Clark and Peyton Flowers. Middle row, from left: Austin Summers, Hollie Goff, Jeff Zimmerman, Cara Dennison, Jordan Palmer and Emily Lacy. Back row, from left: Janella Ahmad, Abby McBride, Hayden Austin, Kelly Burns and Sgt. Rick Gregory.

Those are the words of Hayden Austin, an eighth-grader at Three Oaks Middle School and first-place winner in his grade division for the countywide Red Ribbon Week essay contest.

Dyer County schools concluded this year's anti-drug campaign on Wednesday, Nov. 28 by announcing the 15 winners of the essay contest in the library at Northview Middle School. Parents and school officials had an opportunity to hear the winning essays in each participating grade, fourth through eighth.

Winners received cash prizes from the Dyer County Sheriff's Department: $50 for first place and $25 for second or third place. This is the 15th year the sheriff's department has helped to sponsor Red Ribbon Week.

"For the past 15 years, Sheriff Holt has donated $350 to be broken up between the 15 winners of the essay contest," said Mary Beth Sheppard, a school counselor. "But this year, he said let's up the money. So now $500 of confiscated drug money will be dispersed among the winning students."

The theme of this year's campaign is "High On Life, Not Drugs."

The essays were originally written during the national Red Ribbon Week Campaign, which took place in October. They were judged by both students and teachers within each grade level.

According to Sheppard, the Red Ribbon Campaign was designed to encourage healthy, drug-free lifestyles by creating positive peer pressure in schools. It came into being after the murder of federal drug agent Enrique Camarera by drug traffickers in 1985.

Students across Dyer County, grades K-8, received a red ribbon to show support for a drug-free lifestyle.

The winners of the essay contest were as follows:

Fourth-grade winners: 1st Briar Clark, Holice Powell, 2nd Cameron Fryerson, Newbern Grammar, and 3rd Taylor Rushing, Holice Powell.

Fifth-grade winners: 1st Austin Summers, Finley, 2nd Destiny Tice, Newbern Grammar, and 3rd Peyton Flowers, Newbern Grammar.

Sixth-grade winners: 1st Janella Ahmad, Northview, 2nd Emily Lacy, Three Oaks, and 3rd Hollie Goff, Three Oaks.

Seventh-grade winners: 1st Cara Dennison, 2nd Jordan Palmer and 3rd Jeff Zimmerman, all students at Northview.

Eighth-grade winners: 1st Hayden Austin, Three Oaks, 2nd Abby McBride, Northview, and 3rd Kelly Burns, Three Oaks.