Red Ribbon Week Campaign Begins in Schools Today

The National Family Partnership (NFP) announces the national contest for its 27^th annual Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 23-31. Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country. In 1985 after the murder of a DEA agent, parents, youth and teachers in communities across the country began wearing Red Ribbons as a symbol of their commitment to raise awareness of the destruction caused by drugs.  This year, families can get involved by entering a contest to promote awareness in their neighborhoods and win a drug prevention grant for their schools. It's easy to win because families can generate their own online votes from friends, colleagues, and family members (and the entries with the most votes win).

To participate in the contest families and students will decorate the front of their homes with this year's message: "The Best Me Is Drug FreeTM."  Here’s how students and their families can enter to win $1,000 for their local K-12 school and a new iPad for their home:

1. Students bring the Red Ribbon Week message home by working alongside parents to decorate their front door, mailbox, fence, etc. with this year’s theme “The Best Me Is Drug Free™.”
2. Take a photo with the family and their Red Ribbon Week® decoration, then upload by Nov. 2 to www.redribbon.org/contest or  www.facebook.com/RedRibbonWeek (must be parents or 18+ to upload photos).
3. The voting begins! Ask family and friends to vote for your entry at www.redribbon.org/vote  Nov. 2-16. Ten lucky winners from regions across the U.S. will win. Winners will be announced at events at their winning schools in December.

“Students will once again take Red Ribbon Week’s message of prevention home to their neighborhoods with this national contest,” said the NFP’s Volunteer President Peggy Sapp.  “By decorating their homes together with this year’s Red Ribbon theme, families carry the message to their communities.” The nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention campaign reaches more than 80 million people nationwide.  

The DEA is co-sponsoring this year’s national contest. "DEA is excited to partner with the National Family Partnership® on this contest that empowers communities to come together to talk about the drug problem,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.  “Red Ribbon Week is also when we honor DEA Special Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena, who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our communities safe.”

Watch this video for families to see how easy it is to enter.

We celebrate Red Ribbon Week during the last week of October each year. This week is the nationally recognized anti-drug effort that delivers one of the most important messages students will ever receive; that they have the choice to live a healthy, drug free lifestyle.

History of Red Ribbon Week

Since its beginning in 1986, the Red Ribbon Week has touched the lives of many people. The observation began after the murder of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Agent working on a case in Mexico. Enrique was close to identifying key members of a Mexican drug cartel when he was kidnapped, tortured, and killed. It took a search by hundreds of special U.S. agents to find his body in a grave on a ranch in Mexico. He was buried with honors in his hometown of Calexico, California.

Angered and distressed by this brutal murder of their fellow citizen and the horrors caused by drug abuse in the USA, the citizens of Calexico began wearing red ribbons. National organizations soon picked up on this and began to wear red ribbons as a symbol of their commitment to fight the illegal use of drugs. That symbol remains today when each year millions of school children celebrate Red Ribbon Week.