D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world.

The West Fargo Police Department and the West Fargo School District partnered together in 1996 to bring the D.A.R.E. program to West Fargo sixth graders.  Officer Stacy Dawkins served as the first D.A.R.E. Officer from 1996 to 1999.  Officer Eric Wiinanen became the D.A.R.E. Officer in 1999 and continues currently.

During the Fall of 2003, the program  was moved down from the sixth grade to the fifth grade classes.

Officer Wiinanen travels to Westside, Eastwood, L.E. Berger, South, and Aurora Elementary 5th grade classes weekly.

DARE Camp is held at the Veteran's Memorial Arena in West Fargo.

There is no cost for this event. It includes Lunch and Activities for free!

The West Fargo Police DARE Camp has been held since 1997 with support from the West Fargo Park District.

The camp is available for the first 40 West Fargo School District students going into grade 6th or 7th.

It is designed to provide a fun environment for learning about making wise choices concerning drugs, violence, safety, and other topics.

The camp goes from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Monday through Thursday.

We plan to hold a 2010 Summer DARE Camp.  Watch the West Fargo Park District's Spring/Summer magazine for it and sign up! Or print it off the West Fargo Park District's website.

If you have any questions, call DARE Officer Eric Wiinanen at 433-5500.
 

Every semester, each class has an opportunity to create their own Public Service Announcement (PSA). After the students come up with the ideas for the PSA, DARE Officer Wiinanen fine tunes, films, and edits the 30 second project.

The target audience is usually grades 4th through 7th.

This unique project started when one student recommended that the classes should do a skit or something for the graduation. This evolved to doing a PSA for the graduation. With the generous help of the school district and a local videographer, the DARE Officer filmed the first PSAs to show at the graduation. After the police department purchased equipment, the next semester's PSAs were submitted to the local TV Stations who were excited to show locally produced PSAs.

This has become an exciting project for the DARE students to work on together. Many students describe this is one of their favorite parts of DARE.

This project is designed to do two things.

First, the students are attempting to educate and influence other young kids in making wise choices about not abusing drugs.

Secondly, this project helps as a review of the lessons taught in DARE and also helps to personalize the message. This will be an event remembered for many years.

DARE Merchandise is sold through the following businesses.

dare.decoratedbrands.com
www.darecatalog.com