Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
WORLAND — The Washakie Prevention Coalition (WPC) is set to host the first Washakie Prevention Night this Friday night during Worland High School’s boys and girls varsity basketball games against Lovell.
The WPC is a group of different entities whose mission “is to utilize community-wide collaboration to develop and implement effective strategies for preventing and reducing youth substance abuse in Washakie County.”
Friday’s event is designed to show the youth in Washakie County that there is a strong adult community that is behind them that believes that they can be successful and not resort to drugs or alcohol as an activity.
“Our primary goal is to show positive, encouraging community-wide support for all of our youth staying substance free,” Sheri Gunderson and Sarah Garcia of Washakie County Youth Alternatives said. “Sixty percent of our high schoolers don’t drink alcohol, for example, which is pretty encouraging for kids to hear when they can sometimes feel like they’re in the minority if they don’t drink.” Those statistics is why the night has the motto “Most Don’t.”
According to Gunderson and Garcia, the event will feature a video that was created with the help of Stacey Utterback, James Yule, as well as contributions from the schools to help students appear in the video. There will also be a performance at halftime from the Worland High School dance and cheer teams.
According to Gunderson and Garcia, this event has been planned by a work group within the WPC over the last four to five months. This event was planned for this game in coordination with the high school’s Blacklight Dance that will be happening on Saturday.
Gunderson and Garcia did say that with the event happening this Friday that the indoor track, wrestling, swimming, and speech and debate teams being out of town was not going to go unnoticed, and that the WPC wants them to know that the community is behind them too.
They said they hope that this will be the start of a prevention night every year, and that this will help encourage youth to continue to be substance free and have the community help show their support.
The WPC meets on the third Thursday of each month from 12-1 p.m. at the Worland Community Center, with lunch provided.
The girl’s game will tip off at 5:30 p.m. and the guys game will follow. White t-shirts are being provided to students and staff in the district, so wearing white is asked and encouraged for those that plan on attending.
