In elementary school, for many, every year there would be a week where red ribbons promoting drug-free lives were seen everywhere, from ribbons on students to ones on the wall, red ribbons and red ribbon activities decorated the campus. Here, at Arcadia High School, we celebrate this week as well. This week is known as Red Ribbon Week, held from Oct. 23 to 31, where schools celebrate one of the U.S.’s oldest campaigns designed to promote drug-free lives as well as bring attention to alcohol, tobacco, smoking, and other drug abuse for prevention purposes.
“I first learned about Red Ribbon Week as a kid,” said sophomore Guadalupe Hernandez. “Learning from such a young age really emphasizes the resistance to drugs. I think it’s really important as it brings awareness to the destruction and deaths caused by drugs in America.”
Red Ribbon Week was inspired after Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena died in 1985. Camarena had been assigned to Mexico, searching for marijuana and cocaine traffickers and was very close to unveiling leaders of a prominent drug pipeline. Due to this, he was kidnapped by five drug traffickers who tortured and killed him. He was found a month later.
Saddened by this news and wanting to honor his sacrifice, his hometown of Calexico, California started Camarena Clubs. Club members wore red ribbons in honor of him, pledging to lead a drug-free life. In 1985, the club presented a “Camarena Club Proclamation” to First Lady Nancy Reagan. From there, the development of Red Ribbon Week was started. The first National Red Ribbon Week was established by the National Family Partnership (NFP) in 1988 and has been honoring Camarena ever since.
Sophomore Dylan Nguyen said, “After hearing about the story behind it, I think Red Ribbon Week is actually important to celebrate.”
Every year, the NFP holds a contest to determine the theme of Red Ribbon Week the following year. This year, the theme that was chosen was “Life Is A Movie, Film Drug Free,” submitted by Cheryl Holsapfel, a Digital Art Teacher, and Devansh Aggarwal from Solon Middle School. Along with this theme, the NFP is hosting Red Ribbon Movie Mondays, where every Monday they will present videos submitted by students, living their best, drug-free life.
At Arcadia High School, Red Ribbon Week is celebrated with the iconic items that the Camarena Club started with: red ribbons. The Seniors of Merit at Work members have been making red ribbons to hang all around school for Red Ribbon Week to bring awareness to our high school students.
