Red Ribbon Week kicked off at Irvington from October 23rd to October 31st. This week held events in Irvington over a spectrum of different days.
First starting in 1985, Red Ribbon Week was established as a week that brought attention to abstaining from drugs, as well as the impacts of drug usage on various communities. In Irvington, this event is incorporated with Halloween activities and the theme, “Scare Away Drugs” to attract people through various events and to appeal to the larger crowd of people.
These events ranged from bracelet making to pumpkin painting, held during lunch and during FLEX time for people to participate in creative activities. One attendee during the pumpkin painting event in Wednesday cafeteria flex. “This event seemed really interesting and I love painting. I didn’t know too much about the event, but I assume it was related to the theme which was to ‘scare away drugs.’” During this specific Thursday Flex event — pumpkin painting — people were able to “paint pumpkins while watching a classic, Hotel Transylvania, also why we had fun during the event.” Mohitha Vartharajan (11) comments.
The events remained fun and were well-thought out by ASG, providing creative activities towards an event that has been rendered with a serious topic and perspective. The PR Committee from ASG, who was in charge of organizing these events, mentions that they wanted people to have fun and to “take their stress off things during Flex, which is usually when people are busy. Instead, they were also able to do an enjoyable activity.” Abigail Kang (9) said. Furthermore, despite it being an important event holding crucial history, they were able to connect it to a creative aspect in order to spread awareness about abstaining from drugs.
The event that seemed to have the most hype and also attracted the most attention was the Costume Contest on Halloween, during lunch. Intended to say “boo” to drugs, the event attracted a large crowd of people dressed in costume, as well as those who were organizing the event. The event was separated into multiple categories such as most creative, best group costume, scariest, and best handmade one. ASG was able to successfully attract people to the event while also raising awareness about Red Ribbon Week, the crowd considerably hyped for the event. Many people from the event enjoyed the hype and the excitement of the crowd, people dressed up as everything from Megamind — to a group of sharks, popular characters and figures that brought a lot of attention to the event and captivated fellow peers.
The turnout of Red Ribbon Week remained overwhelmingly positive and people were able to take time off the stressful and busy week through creative activities and social events.
