Students visit Washington, D.C. to learn about suicide prevention
March 5, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Mount Si junior Ben Olson was hesitant about missing a week of school to attend workshops in Washington, D.C. on drug and suicide prevention, but rethought his decision after fellow Mount Si junior Rachel Keizer took her own life in January.
The workshop, the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America conference, is designed to educate community leaders and students about problems revolving around substance abuse, including suicide risk and drug prevention education.
“We need to get involved with and acknowledge these problems with programs,” said Oslon, ASB treasurer and Natural Helpers member. “The more support (the programs) get, the better they’ll be.”
Olson and Cedarcrest High School freshman Tristan Atkinson each won trips to the conference with Snoqualmie Valley Community Network – an organization that promotes healthy living in the Snoqualmie Valley – after entering essay contests. Executive Director Kristy Sullivan of Carnation accompanied the two and took notes on substance-abuse prevention ideas she could bring back to the valley.
“(Olson and Atkinson) were committed to implementing activities and programs and learning more about prevention,” Sullivan said.
The trio visited Senator Patty Murray to discuss the President’s proposed prevention budget. Surprisingly, both Olson and Atkinson, Sullivan learned, were no strangers to the political arena.
“Neither told me in advance that they had connections in Washington, D.C., but it turns out that both of them did, and on both sides of the aisle,” said Sullivan.
Olson’s Aunt Kim is married to South Dakota Senator Bryon Dorgan, who treated the group to lunch in the Senate Dining Room and a tour of the Capitol building.
The Senate Dining Room with a stained glass memorial window of George Washington on horseback is a long way from Snoqualmie, but Ben Olson has already eaten there twice, on account of his uncle.
“It was a little weird sitting amongst people you see on C-SPAN,” Olson said.
Senator Dorgan serves on the appropriations committee, giving Olson and Atkinson a golden opportunity to discuss funding for substance abuse programs.
“The Drug Free Communities grant and the prevention cuts that had been slated by the president on his proposed budget had not come to (Dorgan’s) attention,” said Sullivan. “It was fortuitous for us that Ben knew him. When we went out together, (Dorgan) started grilling Ben and asking Ben and Tristan ‘how hard would it be to find drugs at school?’ He wanted to get their perspective.”
The grant provides funding for the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network, which sponsored the trip. The Drug Free Communities Support Program awards up to $100,000 to community coalitions mobilizing programs against youth alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug and inhalant abuse – a grant Snoqualmie is using and matching over a 10-year period, provided the grant gets refunded every year.
Atkinson also knew some Washington politicians. Her grandfather, a county judge in Texas, has connections to the George Bush White House and her cousin worked with Bush when he was a governor of Texas. A senator from Texas offered them a tour of the Capitol building, “but we had already gotten one from Senator Dorgan’s aid,” recounted Sullivan, still excited from the trip.
This was not the first time Snoqualmie Valley Community Network has taken students to the nation’s capital. In spring of 2006, Lauren Clapp, then a senior at Mount Si and the ASB president, flew with Sullivan to attend the anti-drug conference.
“We lobbied in DC and met with Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell about trying to reduce binge underage drinking,” Clapp recalled.
“(Binge drinking) is such a health risk. Many things are correlated with binge drinking, like having poor test scores and lower grades,” Clapp added. “When you see the level of students who do binge drink, it’s alarming to see the long-term effects.”
By the time Clapp returned to Snoqualmie, her term as ASB president was winding down, but she managed to pass on the information she had learned to the incoming ASB leader and reported to the school board valuable prevention ideas garnered from the DC conference.
Olson and Atkinson plan to start a few campaigns armed with the knowledge from the conferences they attended. Sullivan plans to meet with the Snoqualmie Chamber about the Social Norms Program, a program that shows teens that they have a distorted image of how many people abuse substances.
“If they see that not as many people are doing it, they may not do it either,” said Olson.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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