2017-2018

Community Service

Project

Project R.O.A.D.

Rejecting Opioids and Drugs

Castlewood High School

Castlewood, Virginia

Chapter #3714

Rejecting Opioids and Drugs A Message Traveling From

Castlewood, Virginia to

Capitol Hill

10

3

4

12

7

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15

Partnered With St. Paul Police Department to Conduct a Drug Takeback Day in Our Community Hours Spent: 4

Chairpersons Set Up a Booth at a Home Basketball Game to Promote Our Project and Provide Information About Our Project

Hours Spent: 6

R.O.A.D. Chairpersons Partnered with St. Paul Police Department, Russell County Prevention Coalition, and Blue Devil Drug to Install TWO Drug Drop Boxes in Our Community

Hours Spent: 7

Chairpersons Visited Local Pharmacies with Coalition Members to Deliver Deterra Hours Spent: 5

Chapter Members Prepared Deterra to Deliver to Local Pharmacies Hours Spent: 4

Coordinated with Chapter Members to Create a Slam Poem to Share Student Experiences with Drug Addiction Hours Spent: 18

Promoted Our Project by Volunteering With Local Veterinarian While Creating Personalized Ornaments Hours Spent: 4

Faculty, Staff, Parents, Community During 21CCLC After School Program

January 18, 2018

Who attended the REVIVE!

Trainings?

Faculty, Staff, Parents, Community During 21CCLC After School Program

December 29, 2017

Hours Spent: 10

Advertised the REVIVE Training Throughout the School and Community Using All Call System, Social Media and Daily Announcements

Hours Spent: 7

Chapter Members Organized After School REVIVE! Training to Prepare Our Community Hours Spent: 2

Created Social Media Posts and School Wide Announcements, which Were Used to Raise Awareness of the Importance of a Drug Free Community

Hours Spent: 9

Hung HUGS On Lockers Throughout High School, and Created A Video to Post On Social Media Hours Spent: 2

Celebrated Red Ribbon Week by Creating a Walk Through for “High Fives” For CES As Well As Creating Treats to Be Hung on Lockers Throughout CHS. We Also Allowed Students to Tell Us Their “Natural High” For a Chance to Win Prizes

Hours Spent: 12

Chairpersons Selected R.O.A.D. as the 2017-2018 Community Service Project Hour Spent: 1

Chairpersons Named For 2017-2018 Community Service Project

Castlewood, Virginia – A small,

rural town in Southwest

Virginia. According to the

United States Census Bureau,

Castlewood has a population of

just over 2,000 people. The

Russell County community is

only 7.2 square miles, and some

of the surrounding towns are

not much larger.

Even small close knit

communities are being

impacted by drugs and

addictions. According to the

Center for Disease Control,

Russell county is ranked as

having the fourth highest

overdose rate in the state of

Virginia. Sadly, the four

neighboring counties finish out

the top five in the state. We

can no longer “look the other

way.” After all, not only have

the chairpersons of this project

been impacted, but most

classmates at Castlewood High

have been personally impacted

daily by addictions.

To survive the current opioid

epidemic our community must

face the fact that drug

campaigns of the past need to

take a different direction as we

look closely at the face of

addiction which is far too often

family members and friends

that we love the most.

With the epidemic happening in

our homes, Castlewood High

School’s FBLA chapter decided

that it was time to find a way to

help our community take steps

to safeguard our families

against the temptations of drug

abuse, and work towards a

safer community. It is time we

prepare for and prevent

overdose emergencies and

understand the actions to take

if an emergency does occur.

Chairpersons became more

determined upon learning that

our school conducted a recent

survey and found that only half

of Castlewood High School

students believe their friends

would think it would be very

wrong for them to take

prescription drugs to get high.

This was a scary statistic that

we wanted to change by using

positive reminders of those

things in life that brings us a

natural high. We wanted to

work with local professionals as

we educate our community and

provide alternatives.

Members of our team decided

that by creating a daily

marketing campaign from

October to March, we could

provide outreach to not only

our school but also our

community. The campaign

began by celebrating Red

Ribbon Week with Castlewood

High students impacted by the

infectious smiles and laughter

of the elementary students and

the elementary students being

reminded that they do have a

support group of teens at the

high school.

It was important that this not

be just another project on

“drugs and addictions”. Instead

the focus of the project would

not condemn those with

addictions and not to condone

those that had been “broken”

by their choices, but instead the

focus on demonstrating that we

do believe in our community

and we know that youth can

play and important role in

leading our community out of

this situation.

Castlewood’s FBLA chapter

formed a team to lead a project

dedicated to support,

education, and the leadership

for change by establishing the

following goals:

Creating a team devoted to

raising awareness in the

community of the importance

of being prepared for

emergency situations.

Working with Russell County

Coalition Chair Leader Dustin

Keith and REVIVE! Trainers,

demonstrating to students

and parents how to respond

immediately to an overdose.

Partnering with local police

departments to organize days

to educate students and the

community about the

responsibilities of protecting

our homes and our

community and by providing

resources to the medical

community.

November 2016--Governor Terry

McAuliffe announced that State Health

Commissioner Marissa J. Levine, MD,

MPH, FAAFP, has declared the

Virginia opioid addiction crisis a Public

Health Emergency.

To be successful, the Castlewood High Community

Service Project Team Chairpersons felt it was necessary

to reach out to neighboring communities in Southwest

Virginia, extending to include the Wise County

community of St. Paul and as far reaching at Capitol Hill

in Washington, D.C.

The team was fortunate to have the support of former

FBLA Member, Dustin Keith. Keith, now a Cumberland

Mountain Community Services Prevention Technician

Specialist and Russell County Drug Prevention Coalition

Chair Leader, was a crucial partner for the Community

Service Team.

In order to make a lasting impact on the desired scale,

the team needed assistance and guidance from a

trained professional. After chairpersons, advisers, and

chapter members discussed potential project goals with

Mr. Keith, the project and its goals were finalized. The

project was named R.O.A.D.

The Castlewood High School Chapter of FBLA’s

Community Service Team will focus on creating a safer

community by not only teaching prevention but by

encouraging a new attitude towards those affected by

addictions throughout the community.

The goals of this year’s Community Service Project are as

follows:

Teach students how to react in different situations they

might face when tempted by drugs and opioids.

Educate the school and community on the resources

available in our community for those affected by

addictions.

Teach Care and Treatment for Overdose Victims through

a partnership between the team and the Russell County

Health Department.

Demonstrate Initiative by Preparing Deterra® Information

Packs to distribute through door-to-door visits with all

local pharmacist in Russell County.

Raise awareness on the importance of properly disposing

of unused, unwanted, and expired drugs through a

partnership with the St. Paul Police Department and CVS

Pharmacy Grant.

Identify Risks to Pets and Pet Owners through a

partnership with Dr. Peggy Rucker.

Provide Creative Outlet for High School Students

concerned over opioids and other addictions through a

partnership with Castlewood High TACO (Teen Awareness

Charitable Organization) Club

Provide Examples of Quality Alternative to Drugs through

Natural High Video Week Campaign.

Conduct a Drug Take Back Day to raise awareness of the

dangers associated with drugs readily available in most

medicine cabinets.

Show Support to Elementary Students with a “high five”

Red Ribbon Day.

Use a Member Authored Slam Poem to relate personal

experiences and a feeling of hope.

Use Social Media, Print Media, and Opportunities to

Present in Person the message behind the goals of the

ROAD Project.

Cumberland Mountain Community Service and Russell

County Coalition Chair Leader, Dustin Keith, provides

parents, students, and faculty with Deterra® kits.

What is R.O.A.D.?

R.O.A.D. stands for Rejecting Opioids and Drugs. This is

the Community Service Team’s way of giving back to

the community by educating them on preventative

methods for them and their families to use to reduce

the opioid epidemic in our community.

R.O.A.D. Slogan:

“Helping our community get on the road to recovery, one person at a time.”

Why R.O.A.D. was created:

Our community has the 4th highest overdose rate in

the entire state of Virginia. This is very alarming

considering the small population of our community.

Teach students The Community Service team worked with FBLA members to celebrate Red Ribbon Week. Chairpersons decided that it would benefit more students to host two separate events. First, the team invited the entire Castlewood High staff and student body to wear red and meet before school to form a walk through for the elementary students. As the younger students walked to class they were greeted with a “high five” and a lollipop with an informative message that read, “Don’t be suckered into peer pressure.”

The second event was focused on high school students. An organizational committee assembled an informative message of, “HUGS, not drugs.” The message was accompanied by a Hershey Hug® to draw student’s attention to the message, the message was then hung on every locker throughout Castlewood High School. Natural High videos shown to all students during morning attendance built excitement. From allowing students to choose which celebrity they wanted to learn more about, to prizes donated by business partners being awarded daily, students commented that they would like to continue the videos when possible. Students were challenged to seek out a friend that might be struggling and share their natural highs with that person. The project impacted the community as the event was posted on social media.

“We plan to spend enough time, and hard work on prevention,

so the opioid epidemic will no longer be a problem for our

community.” -Mikayla Johnson, Chapter Member

Educate the School and Community Primary partner, Dustin Keith, informed the team that many people in surrounding communities are uninformed on preventative methods. Many have the mentality that “it won’t happen to me or my family”, which often results in few preparing for the possibility of an overdose or being educated on preventative methods. The chapter decided on the slogan: “Helping our community get on the road to recovery, one person at a time.” to use as an marketing tool. The team used volunteers to research and create educational pamphlets and flyers to distribute to students and the community at different events. The Communication Committee used social media, print media, and any platform that presented itself to inform others of different ways to reduce the opioid and addiction epidemic in the Russell County community, promote events, and share how to celebrate life without drugs through examples of “natural highs.”

Raise awareness After analyzing the statistics, the team realized that learning about the underlying causes of addictions and overdoses was just as important as the preparation itself. For example, if people knew preventative methods and took the precautions to prevent an overdose, they could reduce those statistics greatly. Positive communications served to help remove the stereo type of those often associated with drugs and addictions and was important to the project’s goal of reducing the number of future addictions altogether.

Demonstrate Commitment to the Community The chapter hosted a Drug Takeback Day, where members of the community could safely dispose of unwanted, unused or expired prescription drugs. The activity provided a platform for volunteers to communicate face-to-face with the community to express the team’s desire to “take back our community.”

The club also partnered with the Russell County Prevention Coalition, Blue Devil Drug and the St. Paul Police Department to write grants through CVS’s Safer Communities Initiatives resulting in two drug drop boxes in our community. One was placed at the St. Paul Town Hall, which will be open to the public all the time, and the other was placed at Blue Devil Drug in Castlewood, operating only during business hours. Visitors to the campus continue to enjoy the creative talents of our students as they expressed their commitment to taking back our community from this community epidemic. Using the assigned class chalkboard walls at our school, each class competed for the grand prize of drinks and freshly popped popcorn for the class winner.

(Left to Right)

Cumberland Mountain Community Service and Russell County

Coalition Chair Leader, Dustin Keith, meets with Chairperson

Brooke Horne and chapter member to discuss how to reach the

greatest number of people in the community in the most

impactful way.

Service to Community and Citizens

The Community Service Team was enthusiastic about taking on a project like R.O.A.D. In such a small community, the

opioid epidemic hit especially hard. The team and chapter were excited to be able to lessen the impact by teaching the

community how to be prepared and how they can help.

Castlewood High School’s FBLA was eager to be able to link the school and community together in a way that would be

not only beneficial to them, but also to the world around them. The chapter understood the importance of a project that

would educate the community on how the epidemic affects them, and how they can impact it. To achieve the team’s

main goal of educating the community on ways they can lessen the effects, chairpersons focused on three primary

objectives:

Educating community on ways they can lessen the impact of the opioid epidemic

Preparing students and families by training them with REVIVE!

Involving our school and community with coordinated activities involving local law enforcement and

Cumberland Mountain Community Services

Our Organizational Committee assembled suckers and

HUGS to be given to students and to be attached to all

lockers in support of Red Ribbon Week.

Chapter 3714 was eager to pass on knowledge learned through partnerships with the local businesses to the community. The team felt strongly that the new positive approach being used by local organizations could impact fellow Southwest Virginians in turning around the current epidemic. Using Mr. Keith’s many resources through Cumberland Mountain Community Service and the Russell County Coalition, members quickly brainstormed ways to reach out to different age groups at school and throughout the community. Keith’s experience with community service events during his high school career with FBLA was an asset to the project. The chapter as a whole was able to agree on a list of activities that would create memorable experiences, impact not only the high school but elementary schools and raise awareness of the impact that opioids and addictions are having even for families not directly involoved with addictions. Advisers, chairpersons, and chapter officers were able to narrow down the project to focus on the three main objectives listed above.

A calendar was developed to organize events and to

assure that each event not only took place in a timely

manner and was properly staffed with volunteers.

Through an organized calendar, the event was marketed

in a way that impacted various groups through the use of

social media, print media, daily announcements and with

the of sharing incomes with chapter members during club

meetings.

After careful research of the facts and statistics, the chapter was positive that the most serviceable project would be one

that could allow the chapter to reach out to educate the community. It was vital to the chapter that the impact would

last long beyond the duration of the project itself by showing the community methods of prevention and preparedness.

After R.O.A.D. was selected as the official Community Service Project, it was time for project leaders and chairpersons to

be chosen from chapter members.

Project Leaders

Project leaders were selected after careful

consideration by the Castlewood High School Chapter

of Future Business Leaders of America’s advisers, Sherry

Allen, Peggy Castle, and Connie Crabtree. To better

understand the position of project leaders, the

Community Service team asked Mrs. Allen what she

looked for in an effective leader.

“The most effective leaders with such a hands-on project are dependable, enthusiastic, and creative. Another essential skill is the ability to communicate well with people.”

-Sherry Allen, Adviser

Chairpersons

Chairpersons were selected with the same criteria in

which the project leaders themselves were selected.

Chairpersons for the Community Service Project were

selected from project leaders, all of whom were

current FBLA members, who were readily available

and expressed special interest in the project. Once

selected, committee members were recruited to

assist with each task at hand. The committee

members were approved by both the advisers and

project leaders, assuring the best combination of

chapter volunteers were working diligently towards a

common goal.

Chairpersons Brooke Horne and Makia Phillips began working with groups of students and consulting our local drug

prevention coalition to begin working to implement the goals of the project. Chairpersons soon decided upon the

acronym “R.O.A.D”: “Rejecting Opioids And Drugs.” After the initial project name was set, the project rapidly developed.

The team’s goals were approved by both the FBLA advisers and Castlewood High School’s principal, Mrs. Lila Jenkins.

Chairpersons then consulted with the Russell County Coalition chair leader Dustin Keith about the best way to circulate

informative and preventive information through the community in a positive way, prepare students and parents in case

an overdose occurred, and train students on the dangers of misusing opioids.

Chairpersons and a different team of committee members attended monthly Russell County Coalitions meetings, led by Dustin Keith. The ROAD Project awareness goals were increased with each new attendee.

After consultations with Dustin Keith, the team realized it would be impossible to put all the steps of the project in action

without direct involvement from chapter members. Advisers agreed it would be beneficial to implement a system of

committees dedicated to helping the project succeess. Committee members were a key part in successfully implementing

R.O.A.D. and spreading the project’s objectives through the school and community. Committees include the following:

Social Media Announcements Committee

Members of the Social Media Committee

volunteered their time to advertising social media

pages to ensure the maximum number of viewers

for the information posted. They also fine-tuned

messages to ensure they would be easily

understandable to the community while also

educating them on the topics chosen.

Committee Leader Rilee

Barnette posts informative

messages to inform the

community of the

epidemic in our area to

social media platforms.

REVIVE! Committee

The REVIVE! members organized two events to train the

community to be prepared if an overdose were to occur.

Castlewood student and chapter member Samantha Gray,

helped the team pick the most beneficial way to host an event

to impact our community in the best way possible. The

committee then organized the items that would be distributed

according to the different criteria they and chapter advisers

set.

Committee Leader

Samantha Gray

designs a poster to

encourage

community members

to attend REVIVE!

Trainings.

Organizational Committee

The Organizational Committee planned each meeting

and event hosted. They organized each meeting with

Dustin Keith, the After School Sessions where we

prepared for Red Ribbon Week, and the different

training sessions with Cumberland Mountain

Community Services and the Russell County Drug

Prevention Coalition.

FBLA members on

the organizational

committee worked

closely with

chairpersons to

ensure that each

event was a

success.

Reaching the Students

The Community Outreach Committee collaborated

to write daily announcements that would be

announced during daily morning announcements.

The committee worked tirelessly to ensure the

announcements would be informative and offer

helpful advice on how to prevent dangerous

situations and how to handle them if they occur.

Sample of daily

announcements

written by

Student

Outreach

Committee

Member

The main goal of this year’s Community Service project was to reach out to the community inform them of preventative

methods. As the Community Service Team realized how publicized the project would have to be to successfully spread

the messages of R.O.A.D., the team created committees of dedicated members. The different committee members

reached the community through the use of social media, newspapers, and various means of broadcasting throughout

the school. Every technique used to connect with the community was specifically chosen to reach the largest number of

people in the most impactful way.

Met with Dustin Keith, Russell County Coalition Chair Leader:

After selecting R.O.A.D. to be the Community Service Project, the R.O.A.D. team met with Mr. Keith to ensure that the

project would be successful. Mr. Keith assisted in deciding upon the final goals, as shown below in the graphic, and the

most efficient way to reach them. Over the course of the project, the team would communicate with Mr. Keith for

advice when needed.

Community Outreach:

Committees were formed to ensure the maximum number of community members were informed of the purpose of

R.O.A.D. The daily announcements reached one hundred percent of the Castlewood High student body and faculty

members a day. Posts were also made on the Castlewood High School Facebook page regarding each event as well as

informational posts to raise awareness for the drug epidemic, reaching more than sixty percent of our community. Each

message was designed to be concise and grab the reader’s attention while still informing them of ways to react to

prevent drug overdoses in local communities.

With the help of local

police departments the team was

able to provide two safe locations

to properly dispose of unwanted,

unused, and expired prescription

drugs.

The chairpersons

believed it was vitally important

to educate the community on

how to reduce the opioid

epidemic in our community by

learning different preventative

methods.

It was essential to

prepare the students and their

families by helping them

understand the importance of

drug prevention and overdose

reversal by being trained in

REVIVE!

3 2

R.O.A.D. Facebook® posts

To achieve the main goals of educating the community on

preventative methods and preparing students and families

by educating and preparing them for opioid emergencies,

the team knew that it would need assistance from more

than just the chapter. Advisers agreed that it would

require help from people in all areas of the community to

spread the message in an impactful way. To further

publicize R.O.A.D., Russell County Drug Prevention

Coalition Chair, Mr. Dustin Keith, advised contacting the

local police department.

The Community Service Chairpersons, Brooke

Horne and Makia Phillips were excited to create a

close working relation with Russell County Drug

Prevention Coalition, Cumberland Mountain

Community Service, our local police department,

pharmacies, and doctor’s offices. These

partnerships allowed the chairpersons to be well

informed on different scenarios and to prepare the

chapter and students on ways to reduce the opioid

epidemic in the community.

As demonstrated by the graphic below, a close working partnership with Russell County Drug Prevention Coalition,

Cumberland Mountain Community Service, our local police department, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices were vital to

accomplishing every goal set forth in the Community Service project. Chief of Police,Jonathan Johnson, proved to be

very beneficial in helping chairpersons set up a drug drop box, as well as setting a date with the Organizational

Committee for the Community Service team, volunteers, and Mr. Dustin Keith to host a drug take back day. The drug

take back day was very important to prevention in Castlewood, as many people are not sure how to properly dispose

of unwanted, unused, or expired prescription drugs. Drug take back day provided a time and place for community

members to properly dispose of those drugs. Local Pharmacies and doctors’ offices also worked very closely with the

team to spread information within the community on preventative methods. Chairpersons, along with Mr. Keith,

visited pharmacies, doctors’ offices, and dentists to encourage them to use the Prescription Monitoring Program

(PMP), to prevent addicts from getting opioid prescriptions too frequently. The team also asked medical professionals

to hand out Deterra to their customers, which is a system that dissolves unwanted, unused, or prescribed pills.

The continuous support of the chapter, school, and the community made a project the scale of R.O.A.D. possible. The

constant planning, commitment, and support of the chapter allowed the team to accomplish all the goals that were made

and make a difference in the community by educating them on the opioid epidemic and ways they can help prevent it.

Through the course of the project, the partnerships made with the local Russell County Drug Prevention Coalition,

Cumberland Mountain Community Service, our local police department, pharmacies, and doctors’ offices allowed the

chapter to implement the project in the most effective way possible.

Daily Announcements Examples:

Posts on Social Media Examples:

Examples of Informative Flyers and Pamphlets:

Monday, December 4, 2017: Your Community Service team reminds you that staying drug free is key… key to healthy relationships. Recent surveys of Castlewood High School, indicates that more than 90 percent of parents feel that it is wrong for their child to take prescription drugs to get high. Your parents care about you, you should too!

Tuesday December 12, 2017:

Project ROAD would like to inform you that the

number of drug related deaths in Russell County

is nearly 4 times that of Virginia itself. You can

be the difference, be a success not a statistic!

Tuesday, December 5, 2017: CHS Community Service team reminds you that staying drug free is key… key to not becoming a statistic. In Russell County alone, the number of drug related deaths is nearly 4 times higher than that of the entire state of Virginia. Choose your natural high instead.

Examples of Newspaper Articles:

REVIVE! Training:

On December 18, Mr. Keith returned to the school to assist the team in hosting an After School session during which

students and families become trained in REVIVE!, an opioid reversal system used in Virginia, as well as receive free

Narcan, the opioid reversal drug used with REVIVE! Twenty-one attended this session and went home with their own

REVIVE!® Kits which included Narcan®.

On January 29th, the Community Service team organized a second emergency readiness persuasive table during which

faculty and staff were trained with REVIVE!® Sixty-seven, a large number for a small community, attended this event

which brought the total of those trained to eighty-eight. By hosting this event during the After School program at

Castlewood High School, the team was able to reach the optimum number of parents, students and faculty.

Informational flyers and pamphlets were handed out along with cupcakes demonstrating the team’s logo to draw

attention to the booth.

Giving Back to Our Community:

After the announcement of the Public Health Emergency in Virginia due to opioid addiction, we decided that R.O.A.D.

was the project for our community. We reached out to local police and pharmacies to place two drug drop boxes in the

community. Before our project began, there were only two drug drop boxes in Russell County, neither of which were

close to our part of the county. Now there are two local drug drop boxes that provide a safe place for community

members to dispose of unused, unwanted or expired drugs. This was a huge step forward for Southwest Virginia, and

Project R.O.A.D. because the drug epidemic had taken so much of our community by storm.

Chairperson Brooke Horne, committee

member Mikayla Johnson, and Russell

County Drug Prevention Coalition Chair

Dustin Keith set up booths at the home

basketball game to spread information

regarding preventative methods and local

REVIVE! Trainings. “R.O.A.D” cupcakes

baked by committee members successfully

brought many visitors to the booth.

What began as a simple desire to give back to the community became much larger and more effective than

any of those involved imagined. Starting with the simple goal of making communities more informed

snowballed into something so much more. The initial goal of R.O.A.D. w as to educate, prepare, and stay

informed. With the Opioid epidemic plaguing our local region, the chapter had a desperate desire to

organize a project that would have a long-term impact on the community, not only helping them to prepare,

but teaching how to prevent. After the Opioid epidemic was announced the chapter was able to bring one

community together to help spread awareness, while simultaneously teaching lifetime lessons on prevention

and preparedness.

ube

What began as a simple desire to give back to

the community became

much bigger and more

impactful than any

Starting with the simple

goal snowballed into

something so much

more. The initial goal of

D.A.R.T. was to

educate, prepare, and

stay aware. With over

170 wildfires plaguing region, the chapter had a

desperate desire to do a project that would have

a long term impact on the community by not

only helping them to pw to prevent.

Pharmacy Visits:

Coalition Chairperson Dustin Keith and Carrie Woodlief joined Project R.O.A.D.

in visiting pharmacies and providing them with Deterra® and information

regarding the Prescription Monitoring Program. The Coalition chairpersons, with

the help of the R.O.A.D. chairpersons, demonstrated and taught the need of

preparedness and provided our local pharmacies with much needed and costly

Deterra®.

Chairperson Dustin Keith and Officer Skeens served as keynote speakers for

two monthly club meetings. Officer Skeens shared his experiences as an under

cover drug investigator and his personal experience of having a sister he loves

dearly addicted to Methamphetamine. Mr. Keith shared the latest statistics and

planned R.O.A.D events. A total of eight-eight percent of the local FBLA

membership participated in the meetings. Overall, the club meetings provided a

platform for students to ask questions and address their concerns.

Slam Poem of Student Experiences: Slam poem of Student Experiences:

The Community Service Chairpersons partnered with local

chapter members to create a slam poem from their experiences

with addiction. The slam poem “How Far” has been presented

to the Castlewood High School student body, the Russell County

Prevention Coalition, Judge Mike Moore, and the Russell County

Drug Court. The poem was originally going to be posted on the

school’s Facebook page, as well as YouTube, but the author’s

quickly realized that the poem, based on their personal

experiences, needed to be presented in person. Turning down

the opportunity for the Coalition to sponsor the poem in a

television commercial, the team recently presented their poem

on Capitol Hill at the Dirksen Senate Building.

“I want you all to learn to take care of

yourselves so I never have to go to

your parent’s door and tell them

you’re not coming home.”

-Shannon Skeens, Russell County Sheriff’s

Ofiice

Local Chapter

Members Lauren

McCoy and Jonah

Cornett present

Slam Poem to

Russell County

Prevention

Coalition.

Project Presentation on Capitol Hill:

Chairpersons were invited to represent the National

Chapter of FBLA at the ACTE Showcase on Capitol Hill.

Senators, their staff, and special guests visited with the

team during the event which was held in the Dirksen

Senate Building, Washington, D.C. The team was only

one of seven schools nationwide represented at the

event. The team was also able to tour FBLA headquarters

and talk to FBLA staff regarding our project. The staff

showed great interest in our project and

Communications Coordinator, Kamal Clark, invited the

team to write an article to be featured in Tomorrow’s

Business Leader.

“This project is something that needs to be implemented in other communities. You all are on the right path.”

-Mississippi State Education Director

Volunteer Team Including State FBLA-PBL Director of

Marketing & Membership, Troy White and Customer

Service/Database Associate, Ashley Witherspoon,

share the importance of the ROAD project with

Senator Tim Kaine, and ACTE participants.

that would have a long term impact on the community

by not only helping them to pw to prevent.

The Community Service Team was able to reach

a total of 53,000 people around Southwest

Virginia with their news articles relating to

preparedness and prevention. By providing the

community with this information, the chapter

believes that it was able to reach above and

beyond the numbers originally thought possible.

By reaching these numbers, the team was able

to better prepare the community and their

families on ways they can reduce the effects of

the opioid epidemic in our community. The team

feels confident that our contributions to the

community will have a long lasting impact.

Some of the contributions made were installation

of two drug drop boxes, which provided our

community with a safe location to properly dispose

of unwanted, unused, or expired prescription

drugs. Another contribution was the REVIVE!

Training offered by the Virginia Health department

and Dustin Keith. This allowed the students, staff,

and community to be prepared for overdose

situations in which they may have to save a life.

Finally, the chapter has a firm belief that the

connections made with students and families will

have a long lasting impact that will encourage

members of the school and community to practice

prevention and preparation.

The Community Service Project team were extremely excited about being able to teach the community how to

reduce the epidemic by using preventative methods. In the beginning, the goal of R.O.A.D. was to teach the

community and provide the information that they needed reduce the epidemic, and it soon evolved into much

more than simply a goal. As we started to see the impact that a small amount of information could make on the

safety of community members, education became a priority.

Our Contribution:

At the end of this year’s Community Service Project, the Castlewood High School’s chapter of FBLA is confident that a

large impact has been made on the community. Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon

you can use to change the world.” The value of the education provided by the chapter throughout the course of this

project cannot be measured. In addition to the education on preparedness and prevention provided, the R.O.A.D.

team gave the community a foundation to increase the readiness skills to an extent that has no boundary. The

chapter felt that, in addition to the education, the REVIVE! Kits allowed students as well as their families to know that

it is easy to be prepared; all it takes is initiative. Together we can get our community on the road to recovery, one

person at a time.