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East Ridge Student Wins Contest

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Informed Families/The Florida Family Partnership (I.F.) announced that 12-year-old Kayla Bowers, a sixth-grade student at East Ridge Middle School in Clermont, won the 26th annual Red Ribbon Week's contest "It's Up to Me to be Drug Free." The nation's oldest and largest drug prevention campaign reaches more than 6,000 schools throughout Florida every year, and 80 million people nationwide. "As schools across Florida celebrated Red Ribbon Week this year, our new contest helped students take the message home," said Peggy Sapp, IF's President and CEO. "By entering the contest and decorating their homes together, families carried the message to their communities."

Students from throughout the state entered the contest by decorating their homes together with their parents - mailboxes, front doors and fences. Parents uploaded photos to I.F.'s website and Facebook page, then friends and family voted and the entries with the most votes won (throughout six regions in Florida). "The $1,000 gift to our school from Informed Families comes at a crucial time, and we are very appreciative at East Ridge Middle School," said Principal Charles McDaniel. Kayla's mother, Lisa Bowers, adds: "This really encouraged parent involvement and created the opportunity to have this dialogue at home about such an important issue for families. Parents from throughout our neighborhood were also informed, and the message spread everywhere."

"Informed Families is very grateful to all who participated in this year's contest," adds Peggy Sapp. "We received so many wonderful entries from across the state, and an outpouring of support with over 22,000 votes in during the two-week voting period. We are so happy for the winning families who will receive an iPad2 for themselves and $1,000 for their school." The winning entries are online at www.informedfamilies.org.