Pittsfield Prevention Partnership Honors Volunteers
  Karen Cole, coordinator for PPP, speaks about the efforts of the substance-abuse prevention coalition over the past year. At right, guest speaker Shirley Edgerton, director of Youth Alive!, spoke of the 'duty' of volunteerism. |
More than 30 people, many of them area high school students, gathered to honor the many volunteers and role models in the community who have had a hand in making the substance-abuse prevention campaign a success over the last year.
Co-ordinator Karen Cole said it has been a stellar year.
"We've gotten a lot done thanks to the volunteers who have contributed in many ways, big and small," she said. "Our goals have always been to build a coalition, which we have done, reduce youth substance abuse and measure our results."
PPP is a coalition of youth, health, governmental, education and law enforcements groups working to create a positive, healthy environment for the city's children.
Among the many accomplishments of the group this year was a much more visual social media presence, four neighborhood celebrations, the SAY It Proud Awards, parent and community education, the Sticker Shock campaign and the Totally Free marketing campaign, which Cole said is having an impact on area youth.
"We've found that the totally free campaign has really hit home with the middle schoolers," she said. "They get the message about being clean. They're at a pivotal age to get them off to a healthy start."
In addition to these successes, Cole cited the PPP's prescription drug take-back as an overwhelming success.
"At the last drug take-back, we collected 828 pounds of prescription and nonprescription drugs in a period of four hours," she said. "And we had volunteers counting the pills one by one. That takes a lot of effort."
In fact, as a result of the great success of the take-back campaign, Cole and others will be traveling to Maryland in February to make a presentation at the annual leadership conference of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.
 Students are an integral part of the coalition's efforts to encourage teens not to use or abuse drugs and alcohol. |
The evening did take a somewhat somber note as two former board members, Vincent Marinaro and Cynthia Quinones, were honored for their tireless service to area youth. Both honorees stepped down from the board this year because of overreaching job commitments (Marinaro is head of the Pittsfield Council on Aging and Quinones now teaches English at PHS).
Continuing the theme of honoring and giving back, the evening's guest speaker Shirley Edgerton, director of Youth Alive!, founder of the Women of Color Giving Circle and board member of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, addressed the importance of volunteerism.
"I feel like I'm getting ready to preach to the choir," she said. "I can't tell you what a chore it is to continue to continue these establishments so that young people will stay sober."
Edgerton went on to address the "responsibility not chosen," stressing that being a volunteer is not a choice but a necessary duty.
"Can you imagine anybody not wanting to volunteer," she said. "Our president made a comment that volunteerism and community service should be part of our everyday lives. There are excuses people make; work is busy, money is tight. Only 26.89 percent of our population volunteered last year; that's 63.4 million people. Yet it's so important. Who I am today is a direct result of what a community invested in me."
