Tyrone Area Elementary, Myers Elementary and St. Matthew’s School are holding Home Run Against Drugs Give-A-Book programs for all students in second grade.
This program is a campaign to fight tobacco, alcohol and drugs, according to team manager Sandi Smith.
Home Run Against Drugs is divided into three components, including a 45 minute assembly at the school gymnasium, a free personalized book given to each child and a six-lesson follow-up curriculum to be taught in the classroom.
“We’ve targeted second graders because they’re old enough to understand what we’re talking about,” said Smith, “but young enough to be very impressionable.”
During the school assemblies, Smith talks to the kids about setting goals for themselves and discusses healthy ways they can take care of their bodies. She discusses how hurtful tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs are for their bodies.
“It’s a real, interactive type of assembly,” added Smith, who said she gets the kids involved by having them raise their hands and shout out answers.
The Home Run Against Drugs mascot, Homer, who is in the shape of a baseball, comes out during the assembly to speak to the kids, with the motto, “Be a slugger. Hit a home run against drugs.”
At the end of the assembly, each kid is presented with a free hard cover book, titled Homer and Me. The book is personalized with the child’s name and their friends’ names, which are interwoven throughout the story. Because it is personalized with the child’s name and their friends’ names, it is like the child and their friends are actually characters in the book.
Smith said kids love to read the book because their names are printed throughout the story. The Home Run Against Drugs program not only campaigns against drugs, but with the use of the personalized book, it promotes literacy as well.
New this year to the program is that the American Cancer Society will be involved by giving Spiderman comic books out to each child after the assembly.
Home Run Against Drugs then provides each school district with a six-lesson follow-up curriculum. These lessons provide the second grade teachers with the opportunity to elaborate on the anti-drug message in the classroom setting.
Home Run Against Drugs is a national, nonprofit organization. The personalized books and assembly is provided to the school districts at no cost because of major sponsors, area sponsors, and a small grant.
The area sponsors for this program include: Albemarle, Central PA Community Foundation, Kiwanis Club of Tyrone, Caracciolo’s Steel and Metal Yard, DelGrosso’s Foods, Rotary Club of Tyrone, Shoe Fly Shoe, Ketrow Agency Group, Ketrow-Rothrauff Travel, PPG Industries and Tyrone Elks Club.
Smith is estimating that through her independent printing company, Create-A-Books, she printed 235 books for the second graders at Tyrone, Bellwood-Antis and St. Matthew’s.
For more information, access the web site at www.homerunagainstdrugs.org.
