DDR celebrating Red Ribbon Week with Outreach

Drug Demand Reduction is celebrating Red Ribbon Week October 24-29, 2016, with the help of the local community. DDR is using this week to raise awareness and educate the base and the local community.

The DDR program is designed to give out information on the effects of using drugs, educate Airmen and their families, test military members and more. Red Ribbon Week is an awareness campaign observed in October for drug, alcohol, tobacco and violence prevention.

“We will be going to 12 schools total,” said U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Angela Gaulden, 97th Wing Staff Agency drug testing program administrator. “As far as Red Ribbon Week goes, we will be reaching 5,000 people total around the local community and around Altus.”

DDR teamed up with volunteers and brought an assortment of handouts for kids and a mascot to help educate people on the negative effects of drugs.

“We’ll come and brief each group and spread our message,” said Christopher Baumgardner, 97th WSA DDR program manager. “We’ve got several volunteers, 15 total are helping us out this week with presentations and school visits.”

One problem that DDR wants the local community to be aware of is prescription drug abuse.

“Parents, make sure your stuff is locked up,” said Gaulden. “Just keep it away from kids because a kid can look at something and take it without realizing what it is. Just be more vigilant about things you keep in your house and talk to your kids, if they don’t hear about drug abuse from you they’ll hear it from the wrong people.”

Red Ribbon Week is not only about raising awareness for children. This week is also a good time for those who have questions or concerns about medication and supplements. While medication is prescribed, supplements are a different matter. Workout supplements might have ingredients that can pop up as positive on a random drug test.

“You can take a picture of the ingredients label, send it to our office and we’ll send it to the flight doctor,” said Baumgardner. “He’ll get back to us about whether or not you’ll pop positive for a drug test or if you should even be taking the supplement. He’ll give us the information and I’ll forward it out.”