Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to all the participants. Notices will be sent out to all the contestants inviting them to the Dardanelle Community Center on March 12, 2008, for the presentation of the awards. Nationally known public speaker Milton Creagh will be speaking and a meal will be served. There will also be other presentations from the students of the Dardanelle School System.

David Parnell from FacingTheDragon.org spoke with the Dardanelle High School students on January 10, 2008, thanks to the Dardanelle East Lab who located David and made all the arrangements to get him here.

While in the area Parnell also visited the Danville First Baptist Church and visited with the Youth. It was reported to have been a very powerful and effective presentation, and Parnell hopes to be back in this area soon.

David Parnell is 39 years old, married and has seven children. He is also a methamphetamine and suicide survivor.

David began using marijuana at the age of thirteen. He then progressed to harder drugs eventually discovering methamphetamine. He was addicted to meth for seven years before attempting suicide by shooting himself under the chin with a SKS assault rifle, literally blowing his face apart. His injuries were so severe he was written off as deceased by the sheriff's department while in transit to the hospital. He has had over 15 surgeries and still has many more to go.

David is now sober after spending 23 years on drugs. He has personally shared his story in 13 states, Canada, and England.

There were 33 entries to the PSA contest this year, with entries from three different categories, multi-media, audio, and visual. There were team entries as well as individuals up to 14 years old, as well as entries from individuals 15 years old and over.

Judging of the entries was completed in the January meeting at Dardanelle, and after the votes are tabulated, the winners will be announced to the coalition at the February meeting, with the awarding of the prizes to occur at the March meeting.

Shown looking over some of the entries at the right are (l to r) Jeff Phillips (Counseling Associates), Scott Moore (Yell Co. Sheriff's Dept.), Sheriff Bill Gilkey, Dardanelle Police Chief Montie Sims, and Gary McElligott.

Coalition members reported that the judging was very difficult since there were so many good entries. Several members commented that it was obvious that all of the participants put a lot of thought, time and effort into preparing their entries. Many of the entries were very original in their approach to substance abuse prevention, and will undoubtably provided fresh ideas that may be incorporated into future coalition produced PSA's.

The 15th Judicial District Drug Coalition presented Powerpoint presentations to the Dardanelle 7th and 8th grades on Monday, October 22, 2007, to help kick off Red Ribbon Week. Later in the week, on Thursday, we got to do presentations for the Western Yell County 7th-9th grades and then the WYC 10th-12th grades. The Powerpoint was centered on choices and consequences, and touched on alcohol abuse, as well as consequences of marijuana and methamphetamine use. It also touched on the upcoming PSA contest in an attempt to stir student's interest in taking an active role in fighting substance abuse.

Special thanks to both districts for inviting the coalition, and to the students for their time and attention. WYC purchased their own reminder wristbands with "StopMethNow.com" on one side and "Drug Free Wolverine" on the other. The bands were distributed to all 7th-12th students on the day the coalition visited.

The Dardanelle Schools received two DVD videos produced by the coalition at their request to display during Parent-Teacher conferences to address both methamphetamine use and teen alcohol abuse.