Red is color of being drug-free

Red will dominate in school hallways and classrooms next week during the annual Red Ribbon Week anti-drug celebration. By next spring, there will be some red outside area schools, too, and throughout the community.

At Coeur d’Alene High School on Wednesday, students planted tulip bulbs in celebration of this year’s theme, “Plant the Promise.” At noon today, the Lake City Playhouse will plant three dozen tulips in memory of Tyson Frazier, who committed suicide on Tubbs Hill last month.

Family members said 21-year-old Frazier was addicted to methamphetamine.

“I wanted to do something in his memory and try to prevent this from happening to someone else,” said Tracey Benson, the theater’s artistic director and a Frazier family friend.

Several local community groups, University of Idaho, North Idaho College and local schools have joined to purchase and plant more than 10,000 red tulip bulbs.

Besides planting bulbs, students throughout North Idaho will be wearing red and participating in numerous other activities to increase drug and alcohol awareness.

According to a press release, Red Ribbon Week started almost 20 years ago to honor the death of Enrique Camerana, an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration who was killed by drug dealers in Mexico.

The Coeur d’Alene School District purchased about 5,200 of the bulbs to distribute in grades 4-12. The district is also handing out booklets titled “Good Character by Being Drug Free” and red pencils.

District Spokeswoman Janet Feiler said the schools are using the tulip bulbs in different – and creative – ways.

Skyway Elementary teachers are using the bulbs in science lessons. Hayden Lake Elementary students are planting theirs in big tubs that will be moved to their new school, Atlas Elementary, when it opens next fall.

Students from the Bridge Academy, the district’s dropout retrieval school, planted bulbs at Lakeshore Realty and are available to plant more at other businesses, Feiler said.

Woodland Middle School is holding classroom drawings and encouraging the winning students to take the bulbs home and plant them.

Amy Bartoo, executive director of Idaho Drug Free Youth, said the red blooms that show in the spring will serve as a reminder of the promises students made in the fall as they planted the bulbs – to be drug- and alcohol-free.

“It’s planting the promise that another Tyson Frazier would never do that to himself,” Bartoo said. “Let’s come together as a community and recognize that we have to pay attention to the fact that abuse and alcoholism permeates all lives, all families. As a community, we need to promise we’ll do what we can to put a stop to it.”

For information on Red Ribbon Week, contact Bartoo at (208) 664-4339.