by Jeanne Neuwirth, LSW, Pathways Clinician and SADD Club Advisor

Carteret High School's SADD Club orchestrated several activities in October that helped students start off the school year on an upbeat note.

In honor of Week of Respect, celebrated the first week of October every year in NJ, students worked together to pepper the hallways with hundreds of inspiring messages.

The “Positive Post-it Note Campaign,” initiated last year by SADD Club, has now become one of SADD’s favorite activities at CHS.

A school-wide morning announcement punctuated the event: “In honor of Week of Respect, SADD Club’s Positive Post It Note Campaign has placed 1,000 positive messages all over Carteret High School! Read them, re-share them with friends and family, and keep the positivity going! Remember that every single day you have the opportunity to be a positive force in the world!” Students were later seen reading the notes, wearing them all over their shirts, or sticking them on folders and binders to keep and share. Students shared that seeing positive messages up and down the hallways of the school made them smile.

To raise awareness and educate students and faculty about the dangers of opioid abuse, SADD students placed informative flyers on every door handle in the school in recognition of Knockout Opioid Abuse Day. Did you know that prescription painkillers, typically prescribed for everything from dental surgery to sports injuries, can be highly addictive? According to Drug Free NJ, nearly half of young people who inject heroin reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin.

More recently, SADD Club promoted Red Ribbon Week, an annual nationwide campaign against the destruction caused by drugs.

A team of SADD club members stationed at the school entrance in the early morning handed out 1,000 Red Ribbon stickers that read, “Your Future is Key so Stay Drug Free” -- just about every student in the school wore one! Prizes of Red Ribbon merchandise and candy were given out to students who, throughout the day, stopped by Pathways displaying the pledge to stay drug free.

Finally, Pathways joined the CHS World Language Society to bring the #polishedman campaign to CHS. One child dies every 5 minutes as a result of violence. Statistics show the perpetrator is often a man. The Polished Man campaign is an international movement that challenges men to paint 1 nail (on 1 hand--one out of 5, like the statistic) during October to raise awareness and funds in order to help put an end to violence against children worldwide. Pathways set up a polishing station to paint a nail for anyone who wanted to participate. Several of our students and staff members joined in to raise awareness of the campaign and message.

#SADD #SADDCHS #RedRibbonWeek2017 #POSITIVEPOSTIT #WeekOfRespect #knockoutopioidabuse #drugfreeNJ #ipreferapolishedman #polishedman