PHOENIX, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 100 local youth joined Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley on Tuesday to sign a pledge to stay away from Meth forever. The young members of the Boys & Girls Club I.G. Homes Branch in Phoenix were among the first young people statewide to sign the ARIZONA METH PROJECT "Not Even Once(R)" summer youth pledge that is traveling across the state collecting signatures and illustrations from Arizona youth.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070712/LATH116 )
Multiple 3-by-5-foot pledges are currently making appearances at parades, community events, music festivals and Boys & Girls Clubs across the state through early August, where teens and young adults can sign their names and write personal messages on a vinyl sheet. A sampling of some of the pledge stops across Arizona can be seen at http://www.arizonamethproject.org/. The calendar of events will evolve over the next few weeks as more pledge stops are scheduled.
At Tuesday's event, Stapley -- who serves as co-chair of the ARIZONA METH PROJECT Advisory Board alongside Attorney General Terry Goddard -- signed his name in red ink and then invited the young Club members to do the same. Amy Gibbons, president and executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix, was also there to sign the pledge and encourage others to do the same.
"Part of the foundation for this campaign is that it be a collaborative effort to reach young people with the message to never try Meth," noted Stapley. "In combining efforts with the Boys & Girls Clubs, which already use their own methSMART program to teach kids about this evil drug, we can have a greater community impact than any one isolated initiative."
Tyler Mast, a 15-year-old Boys & Girls Club member at the I.G. Homes Branch, signed the pledge with his father watching. In 1995, Tyler's father faced 75 years in prison for drug charges. He has since turned his life around and started a ministry to help others in similar situations. "Meth is a terrible drug that destroys families," Tyler said.
In mid-August, all of the vinyl sheets from across the state will be collected, assembled and unveiled at a public event. The traveling pledges are making appearances across the state in an effort to reach large and small communities with the "Not Even Once(R)" message.
The ARIZONA METH PROJECT is a collaborative statewide mass media youth prevention campaign focused on averting first-time Meth use among Arizona's youth.
About the ARIZONA METH PROJECT
The ARIZONA METH PROJECT is a collaborative prevention campaign aimed at significantly reducing first-time Meth use in Arizona. The campaign primarily targets middle- and high-school students, and young adults ages 18 to 24. Support for the campaign comes from state funds allocated by the counties, private funds, a significant allocation from the Maricopa County General Fund, and funding from the Arizona Attorney General's Office. To date, participating counties in the ARIZONA METH PROJECT include: Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Pinal, and Yuma. The ARIZONA METH PROJECT mass media prevention campaign complements the work of existing anti-Meth coalitions and community-based education and treatment programs across Arizona.
The ARIZONA METH PROJECT is overseen by the ARIZONA METH PROJECT Advisory Board, comprised of appointees from participating counties, as well as expert representatives from the treatment, tribal, education, media and business communities.
The ARIZONA METH PROJECT implements the gritty Meth Project advertising campaign initiated in the state of Montana as the Montana Meth Project, which has been hailed as instrumental in raising public awareness of the dangers of Meth according to the Prevention Needs Assessment administered by the Department of Public Health and Human Services, where 93 percent of Montana teen respondents agreed there was great risk associated with Meth, which is 10 percent higher than teen perception nationwide. The ARIZONA METH PROJECT is modeled after the Montana Meth Project, which combines advertising with community-action programs. The Meth Project is working with states across the nation interested in replicating the program as part of their efforts to reduce the prevalence of methamphetamine use.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070712/LATH116" mime-type="application/octet-stream"/>
Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070712/LATH116
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
>
ARIZONA METH PROJECT
CONTACT: Rose Conner of ARIZONA METH PROJECT, Maricopa County,
+1-602-372-7091; or Christina Borrego, +1-602-462-2229, cborrego@riester.com,
or Janelle Brannock, +1-602-462-2232, jbrannock@riester.com, both of RIESTER,
for ARIZONA METH PROJECT
Web site: http://www.arizonamethproject.org/
