Optimists name ‘Just Say No’ winners
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Pictured are winners of this year’s Maryville Optimist Club “Just Say No” drug-free poster contest. Shown front row, left to right, are Kam Durnin, Jacqueline Cline, Spencer Scott, Avery White, Samuel Herndon, Gabe Baldwin and Halle Buck; middle row, left to right, Charity Piveral, Kort Watkins, Cameron Jenkins, Ethan Dudeck, Katlyne Marriott, Lucy Parsons and Kensley Wood; back row, left to right, Optimist member Rick Smail and Maryville High School seniors Jarrett Cronin, Jacob Cacek, Madison Von Behren and Erin Florea.
The Maryville Optimist Club has announced the winners of its annual “Just Say No” drug-free poster contest for fourth-grade students at Eugene Field Elementary School, St. Gregory’s School and Horace Mann Laboratory School.
The top posters this year were submitted by Hallie Buck and Gabe Baldwin at St. Gregory’s; Lucy Parsons from Horace Mann; and Charity Piveral, Kam Durnin, Jacqueline Cline, Spencer Scott, Avery White, Samuel Herndon, Kensley Wood, Kort Watkins, Cameron Jenkins, Ethan Dudeck and Katlyne Marriott at Eugene Field.
Each of these students received a $10 Wal-Mart gift card.
Overall winners Durnin and Cline received an additional $10 certificate, and their posters were entered in district-level competition.
Each student entering the contest received an 11-inch by 14-inch sheet of poster paper on which to graphically express any portion of the Optimist International Just Say No Pledge, which reads: “I pledge to lead a drug-free life. I want to be healthy and happy. I will say no to alcohol. I will say no to tobacco. I will help my friends say no. I pledge to stand up for what I know is right.”
Students were asked not to imitate any existing commercial message but to design an original image communicating the importance of remaining drug free.
Maryville winners were chosen by members of the local Optimist Club and announced during an assembly at Eugene Field Elementary School.
Speakers at the assembly included Maryville High School seniors Jacob Cacek, Madison Von Behren, Erin Florea and Jarett Cronin.
“Just Say No” was the name of an advertising campaign conducted in the 1980s and ’90s and associated with the United States’ “War on Drugs.” The intent of the campaign was to discourage children from engaging in illegal recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no.
The slogan was coined by first lady Nancy Reagan during the presidency of her husband, Ronald Reagan.
