Alamogordo DARE Picnic Day
Nicole Maxwell
The D.A.R.E. Program at elementary schools in the Alamogordo Public School District celebrated the end of the year with the annual D.A.R.E. Picnic Day at Alameda Park Zoo May 16.
The day included lunch, raffles, speakers and more.
"We go into the classrooms with the fifth graders and we have a 10-week course that we teach them," Alamogordo Police Deputy Chief and D.A.R.E. instructor Mike Lawrence said.
"The course used to be a lot about drugs and stuff like that but now it's more about how to make good decisions. We walk them through the process of making those good decisions. Not just related to drugs but in life in general."
The idea is that should the students get in a situation where drugs are present, they will make the decision not to use them weighing the pros and cons before deciding, Lawrence said.
D.A.R.E. is funded through community donations and does not have a budget within APD, Lawrence said.
Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on twitter at @nicmaxreporter.