Drug-Free Calendar

The Drug-Free Calendar is a proactive substance abuse project where kids teach other kids about the benefits of a drug-free life. This project is modeled after a program started by Baltimore, Maryland District Attorney Sandra O'Connell.  The contest is open to all 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students throughout Brevard and Seminole Counties attending both public and private schools. Students are invited to design posters illustrating the dangers of drug use. The winning posters are used in an annual drug-free calendar and the students designing the winning posters are honored at a special awards ceremony.

The Brevard County Drug-Free Calendar Contest is a six month process which begins just prior to the start of each school year and culminates with an awards ceremony for the winners.

Since this project was implemented in 1990, more than 40,750 entries have been received from Brevard County students alone. The thousands of calendars printed each year are paid for with money seized by local law enforcement officers from drug dealers. We can't think of a better way to spend drug dealers' money.

Red Ribbon Week Story

Thursday, February 7, 1985 did not begin as an unusual day for Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. The 37 year old U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent was only three weeks from being reassigned. He had been on the trail of Mexico’s marijuana and cocaine barons and had come dangerously close to exposing a multi-million dollar pipeline, which he suspected reached into the highest levels of the Mexican army, police, and government.

According to a DEA reconstruction of the events of that day, "Kiki" was headed to lunch with his wife when he was approached by five men and shoved into a car. He would not be seen alive again. One month later, his body was discovered in a shallow grave outside Michoacan, Mexico. He had been tortured, beaten, and brutally murdered.

As word of "Kiki's" brutal murder began to appear in newspapers, radio, and television broadcasts across the country, a seed was sown that would soon bear fruit in a national effort to focus attention on the dangers of drug abuse. Several school parent associations, already angry at the killing and destruction caused by alcohol and other drugs in America, banded together to proclaim their concerns and to make a demand for action in local communities. The Red Ribbon was selected as their symbol to show intolerance for drugs in our schools, work places, and communities.

In 1988, an eight-day Red Ribbon Week was proclaimed by the Congress of the United State, with Nancy Reagan as Honorary Chairman. Every year since its beginning, the annual Red Ribbon Week emphasis has gained more and more support and has impacted millions of Americans. It has become one of the most dynamic drug prevention movements in our country. School children and their families, businesses, churches and synagogues, government agencies, hospitals, and entire communities have come together to carry one message: It Is Ok To Say No!

Brevard County Posters
Seminole County Posters

For information on how you or your school can participate in this project, please contact Darrin Adams in Brevard County at (321) 617-7510, or Bernadette Serafinowicz in Seminole County at (407) 665-6000.