CHESTERMERE –On Thursday, March 1, Dwayne Peace of the Dare to Care program visited Chestermere Lake Middle School to give a presentation about drugs awareness, specifically aimed toward parents.
Around 50 people attended the event, where Peace talked about the kinds of drugs that are found in every community, what they are and how they work, and the risks involved with each.
However, instead of just simply reinforcing that drugs are bad and that kids should stay away from them, Peace spoke to the parents about the right way to talk to their kids about drugs, how to deal with difficult situations, and how to teach kids how to make good decisions and deal with consequences.
Local parent Jennifer Berry, who has two young sons, said it was one of the most powerful presentations she has ever attended.
“If you ever get the opportunity to attend a session by this organization, make sure you go, I highly recommend it,” she said. “It was truly awe-inspiring and so powerful.
“It was such a great confirmation that there are amazing people out there that care about our kids and it helps remind us that we are raising the next generation of leaders.
“It was great to hear him speak and to know that we are teaching our kids the right things. Sometimes it’s something you need to hear.”
Peace is a retired 25–year member of the Calgary Police Service. He spent the last seven years of his career as a School Resource Officer (SRO) and as a result has a special talent for working with youth and a passion for helping to make a difference in their lives.
Having seen and heard just about everything during his time with the CPS and in his years as a public speaker, Peace offers an in-depth perspective into just about every kind of drug there is, how youth get involved with drugs, what can be done to prevent their involvement.
He also offered parents an insight into how he interacts with his own kids, and how he offers them choices and goes about teaching them how to make the right decisions in order to make them into future leaders.
Peace said during his presentation that he could provide enough information to talk for hours on end, but that his main goal was to provide enough information to get everyone thinking.
“That’s all I want to do when I talk to both kids and adults, just get them to think,” he said. “So it’s not a dumbed-down presentation and it’s not a scare-tactic because those don’t work.
“I simply speak to parents and their children to give them enough information to get them thinking, because if the kids do something wrong and get themselves suspended from school or charged by the police, they will not be able to say they didn’t know.
“They did know, they just chose not to listen, and I’m okay with that, because I’m all about youth having choices.”
Peace also made two presentations to the students during regular school hours in order to get them educated about the risks and consequences that accompany drug use.
One of his main messages was to simply give everyone some added knowledge, because “smart people learn from their mistakes, and intelligent people learn from the mistakes of others.”
For more information about Peace and the Dare to Care Program, go to daretocare.ca.
