Red Ribbon Week Influencing Fair Grove High School for the Better

Fair Grove High School’s club SADD puts on Red Ribbon Week every year to support making good decisions. This year has exceptional themes with catchy phrases to tie them to SADD’s mission.

SADD stands for Students Against Destructive Decisions. They are all about making sure students are making responsible decisions and keeping themselves and others safe. They want to spread the message that there are better ways to have fun other than substance abuse. 

Red ribbon week is one of the things SADD is most known for. SADD president Zoey Hupman (12) shared, “Red Ribbon Week is a big week for SADD and it takes a lot of planning by the officers to pull it off.” 

The mission of this spirit week is to spread awareness of how common substance abuse is, even in small towns like Fair Grove. Hupman points out, “We don’t think students take substance abuse seriously or they believe that it’s a problem that isn’t relevant to the Fair Grove Community. However, that is very far from the truth.”

Hupman enlightened us with the process it takes to come up with the spirit days, “The SADD officers met and came up with about 10 ideas that we had for specific theme days we felt would get the most involvement from the student body. Then we voted on it among the officers and chose the spirit days.” 

Student involvement is crucial to the success of these spirit weeks. It is not only the students that participate in red ribbon week though, some teachers go all out. Hupman recalled, “My favorite part of Red Ribbon Week is seeing the involvement from the student body and even the staff.” 

The themes for this year are as follows: on Tuesday, Hawaiian Day, lei off drugs. Wednesday: Anything but a Backpack, choose anything but drugs. Thursday: Country v. Country Club, drugs can find you anywhere. Friday: Costume day, drugs are scary.

Red Ribbon week isn’t just about dressing up for the spirit days. This year SADD wants to do more. Hupman revealed, “We’re also hoping to put on an assembly to either kick off or end Red Ribbon Week.”

Substance abuse is an ongoing issue all over the world and seeing Fair Grove students and staff support a group like SADD through this spirit week is very uplifting. Paige Robinson, SADD vice president, shared, “My favorite part is deciding on the themes for the week and seeing everyone participate.” SADD is hoping that this year’s red ribbon week will be the best yet.