Don’t Be Despicable, Don’t Do Drugs

            Sigourney Police Chief Allan Glandon brought a simple, yet fun theme for the elementary students this week for Red Ribbon Week on October 23 and October 25, incorporating the silliness of the movie franchise “Despicable Me” and the message of a drug free lifestyle into his presentations.

            Glandon and Sigourney Police Administrative Assistant Ashley Fry visited with preschool through third grade students to talk about recognizing and staying away from drugs. The duo split class sections between the two days, giving age-appropriate presentations and taking questions from students.

            “I believe for drug awareness and drug prevention we need to start very early in [the student’s] lives,” Glandon said. “We need to let them know there things out there that are not safe and to let an adult know if they see something like we showed them.”

            In order to make their presentations more fun, Fry incorporated the minions from “Despicable Me” into a fun game for kids to play. A poster was put up in the front of the classroom, where kids helped to identify which of the poster’s pictures were the “good things” (carrots, police officers) and the “bad things” (needles, drugs). Then, classes were split up into groups, with one student putting on blinding minion goggles and directed by their group to stick a minion over the bad things.

            “It was a kid-friendly exercise, they enjoy the characters, and interactive activity for the students to do,” Fry said. “[Glandon] would walk in with a Gru mask and the kids would immediately recognize the character.”

            Glandon hopes that kids will tie in safety with the beloved characters and also remember the message Fry and himself presented. This is Sigourney Police Depts eighth year with this particular program, where they visit the school and with students about drug prevention. 

Please view the November 1 edition of The News-Review for the full story.