August 7, 2017 at 4:06 p.m.
Zion student wins regional DARE essay contest
Zion student wins regional DARE essay contest
By Kayla Thomason-
DARE officer Amanda Young of the Rhinelander Police Department presented Jaylee Weyhrauch, who is going into sixth grade, with a gift bag for having her DARE essay selected as the winner for her region at the annual DARE conference. Weyhrauch's gift bag consisted of a frilled frisbee, a new DARE shirt, a police pen, sunglasses, DARE rubber duck, stress ball emoji, lanyard, and blue and black paracord.
She was one of 20 Zion students to participate in the contest.
The region stretches from Price County to Florence County, up to the Michigan boarder and down to Marathon County.
"I was really excited," she said with a grin. "At first my mom was like 'I got a call from the police department today, I'll tell you more about it later' and then I'm like 'Oh no, I'm super scared now,' and then she told me what it was 'Well you won the regionals for the DARE essay,' and I'm like 'Oh! Great, I thought it was something really bad.'"
Young reads the submissions and factors in the content and quality of the writing. She then submits one essay to the DARE board to be entered into the contest.
"It just talked about the dangers of smoking and alcohol, using it to an extreme and she also mentioned in there in regard to adults can have one or two from time to time and it's not an issue but whenever it becomes more it can be a problem," Young said of Weyhrauch's essay, adding that it included a lot of statistics.
Young takes many things into consideration, not just the quality of writing but heart put into it, in choosing the winning submission.
"It's very difficult because I generally find that kids love the DARE program and maybe some of them are not the best writers but at the same time they tried really hard with an essay because they put such heart into it. Maybe it's not as good as somebody that is an excellent writer, so you have to take into consideration, the heart that was put into the effort," she said.
Weyhrauch was stunned to have won.
"I didn't really think I would win, I just searched up some questions and went to some websites and wrote down the information that I found," she said. "I didn't think that I was going to win. I wasn't that good I didn't think."
She feels the DARE program is vital.
"I think it's a really good program, it tells people to be aware of bullies, don't do drugs, the basics. Basically, it teaches about stress, and a whole bunch of other stuff to be careful of," Weyhrauch said. "It's a good idea to have it, they should keep it around and I think it was really fun."
They played DARE jeopardy, and she thought it was a blast.
Young has been an officer for 12 years and the DARE officer for nine years. She said she has learned a lot in the process.
"DARE is such a great community relations tool in getting in touch with students that get to see us not arresting people," she said. "We get to get down to their level and hang out with them and I learned recently that on DARE days attendance is greater because they enjoy it so much."
The fifth and sixth grade DARE program begins at the start of February and continues through the middle of May.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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