This week, students and staff at Unalaska's schools are celebrating Red Ribbon Week. School counselor Teri Morris said the national campaign is an effort to educate kids in drug abuse prevention and promote healthy habits.
"The idea of Red Ribbon Week is to bring awareness to the fact that we do have a drug addiction problem in the United States," explained Morris. "And we're just trying to have a week where we can focus on that and focus on teaching kids about how to keep their bodies healthy and how to stay healthy in general, which is more of what we focus on at the elementary school."
Morris said she's been involved in organizing Red Ribbon week in Unalaska for 21 years. This year, students at Eagle's View Elementary Achigaalux and Unalaska Junior High and High School are celebrating the event by dressing up, participating in quizzes, decorating the school, and attending presentations.
"This year, we have a door decorating contest," said Morris. "And we have a poster contest, which is sponsored by the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. And then we have dress up days this week. And we're also doing a quiz every day. [The students] get tips and little pieces of information about drug prevention, and then there will be a quiz that they can complete and submit for prizes."
On Monday, Morris said students dressed up in red, on Tuesday they came dressed as a llama or other animal—as this year's theme is "No prob-llama, I'm drug free"—and on Wednesday, students sported their blue and yellow Unalaska gear for Raider Pride Day.
Morris said the administration is still working on some of the prizes for this week's contests.
