Pictured (first row, from left) are Krista (sixth-grade winner), Tresyn (seventh-grade winner), Addison (eighth-grade winner), and Kaydan (honorable mention). Pictured (back row, from left) are the judges – Deborah England (BBBS Program Coordinator), Gloria Dockery (BBBS Senior Program Coordinator), Catherine Brown (BBBS Cherokee Advisory Council member), and Tim Radford (Murphy mayor).
October was Youth Substance Use Prevention Month and National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. So Cherokee County’s Big Brother Big Sister program decided to partner with Murphy Middle School in hopes of making more students aware of what substance abuse is.
BBBS purchased drug awareness pamphlets for every child in sixth through eighth grades at the school. Guidance counselor Katie Rankin took it from there and invited every student to participate in BBBS Cherokee County’s Drug Awareness Poster contest.
On Oct. 27, BBBS visited Murphy Middle School and choose the three top posters along with one awarded an honorable mention. “We had some really great posters, and it was very hard to judge,” said Gloria Dockery, BBBS Cherokee Senior Program Coordinator.
BBBS hopes to include more Cherokee County middle schools next year. Gloria thanked Katie Rankin and school principal Adam Clonts for allowing us to be involved.
