MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- "Come on. Everyone does it; stop being such a baby." Children oftentimes face peer pressure when confronted with the decision to take drugs or not. Through the Drug Education for Youth resident camping and mentoring program, held this year in Big Bear, Calif. June 14-18, children ages 9 through 12 learned about using drugs and how to say no.
The two-phase DEFY prgram, held this year at Pine Summit in Big Bear, implemented it's first phase as a five-day residential camp. This phase is followed by a year of mentoring, where campers and mentors meet monthly for fun activities and continued drug education.
This year, 23 children and 10 mentors from MCLB Barstow attended the residential camp.
The camp was held in Big Bear to get the kids out of Barstow, said Staff Sgt. Lafawn Skipper, camp coordinator for this year's resident DEFY program and MCLB Barstow chaplain's assistant.
The goal of this year's DEFY program was to set an early example of positive reinforcement for saying no to drugs. "These kids need to keep away from drugs and keep their friends off drugs," said Skipper.
Gunnery Sgt. Tad Snidecor, camp director for this year's resident DEFY program and the supply officer of Headquarters Battalion MCLB Barstow, said drug resistance was stressed.
The DEFY program is based on a self-esteem building curriculum which provides children with the tools to resist drugs, gangs and alcohol. While attending the camp students received classes in such areas as the history of our flag and how to create a board of advisors who can help them in a compromising situation. The basics of fitness and nutrition, goal setting, drugs and how to resist them and classes on how to resist peer pressure were also areas that were focused.
"The purpose of class was to teach kids drug awareness, physical fitness, teamwork and to build self-confidence," said Skipper.
The days at camp weren't just filled with long hours in the classroom, though. Team building skills and trust in others were built through recreational activities held at the camp.
Students had the chance to participate in the President's Challenge, the Physical Activity and Fitness Awards Program of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, aimed at assessing the current fitness level of youth ages 6 to 17. The program consists of testing children in five different areas. These areas include: crunches, a one mile endurance run, the v-sit, the sit and reach and right angle push-ups.
To stress the importance of physical fitness, students participated in a nature walk, games of human foosball, basketball and swimming.
Team building skills and trust were taught through a rope course set up at the camp. The different events, constructed to show the importance of teamwork and trusting the people around them, were presented to the students. The rope course included students standing on a log and having to switch places without touching the ground, swinging from one point to another and trying to get a whole team on a platform, staging a team from one tree to another on a thin piece of wire and traversing from one end of an unstable log to another. This was the culmination of the activities at camp before returning the Barstow campers back to their parents.
"Each (child) made a drastic improvement," said Skipper. "Whether it was changing from not wanting to participate to becoming more involved. Just seeing them get along as a team was a drastic improvement," she said.
"(Children), parents and mentors teamed together to learn the simple fact that the use of illegal drugs is wrong," said Snidecor.
There will be a second phase to the program, in which students and mentors are sceduled to meet once a month until DEFY graduation in April.