The Munster Police Department, in cooperation with our public elementary schools, recently held our spring semester Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Graduation ceremonies at Elliott Elementary School (May 12th), Eads Elementary School (May 16th), and Frank Hammond Elementary School (May 19th, held at the Centennial Park Amphitheatre) to celebrate the fifth graders’ completion of the 10-week D.A.R.E. curriculum.
The core curriculum of the D.A.R.E. Program includes lessons on drug prevention, bullying prevention, managing stress, using help networks, confident communication skills, resisting peer pressure, and more and concludes with a visit from Munster High School D.A.R.E. Role Models.
These D.A.R.E. Graduation ceremonies are always fun and memorable events where the students are honored in front of their parents and school staff members. The students each received certificates and gift bags and individual students were recognized with awards for writing the top essays or other accomplishments. The music teachers also worked with the students to learn special songs to perform for their parents, and the programs were followed by receptions at several of the schools hosted by the PTOs.
SPECIAL THANKS to our schools’ PTOs, our sponsors (listed right), and to our D.A.R.E. chairpersons (Maryann Chrisman, Ljubica Bresjanac, and Megan Curran) for helping to organize this year’s events and to everyone who volunteered their time to make them successful for the students.
Thank you as well to Munster Parks and our special speakers which included Dr. Bret Heller, Superintendent of Schools; School Town of Munster Board Members Kristen Smith, John Castro, and Amy Sinder; and Munster Police Department administrators Chief Steve Scheckel and Lieutenant Dan Broelmann.
The Munster Police Department’s D.A.R.E. Program has continued to run strong in Munster for 37 years (since 1988) thanks to generous support from our community. Congratulations to all of this semester’s graduates and thank you for your support