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Highlands Today

Fun Day

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Debbie Lees

Published: June 21, 2008

What makes a "Summer Fun Day" fun? A beautiful park, upbeat music, lots of food, kids and adults dedicated to guiding kids into productive lives. Everyone agreed on that at the Summer Fun Day, held on June 17. It was an alcohol free, drug free, and smoke free fun event, held at Highlands Hammock State Park. And the best part, because of the generosity of a few people, it was a free event.

So thanks are in order for the following who contributed to the event: First, to Peter Anderson, for the use of the park, to the park rangers who assisted, especially Dorothy Harris who put on a fantastic and challenging scavenger hunt, to the Highlands County School Board who provided lunch, to DJ Mike Davis, to the School Resource Officers and the DARE program for providing their time, talents, snacks and energy to provide lots of extra fun, to Sheriff Benton, to Youth For Christ for providing the love and energy we all needed to keep going in the heat, to the parents who brought their kids, and to the many local businesses who provided free coupons for the kids to reinforce the message of a drug-free lifestyle.

So, special thanks to MacDonald's, to Dairy Queen, to Big Al's Italian Ice, to Blockbuster and the grand prizes were pizza coupons donated by Pizza Hut and Pizzano's Pizza. A and W Rood Beer and Subway also made contributions to the day.

And finally, the day was really successful because a few people took off work and/or brought lots of kids with them to share their beliefs in a healthy life style: Chris Taylor, youth pastor at New Covenant Worship Center, Bob Devlin, Youth for Christ Ministry, Director Lindsay Murphy, Youth for Christ, Girls Ministry, Andy Centonzio, Department of Health, the teens with SWAT and Youth for Christ, and especially the teen leaders for the day, Brannen Dorman, Ricki Albritton, and Mickey Lukens.

When one sees teenagers who give of themselves to help influence other teens in a positive way, it restores your faith that his upcoming generation is really special.

Debbie Lees
Highlands County Community Coalition
For Substance Abuse Reduction
Sebring

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