Harwich-Raleigh Grade 5 student Marly Pollock came up with a winning design that got the attention of the Chatham-Kent Police Service Crime Prevention and Community Safety Section officers.
Thirty-nine schools across Chatham-Kent are taking part in the Values, Influences and Peers (VIP) program this school year. Ten schools in Chatham are sponsored by the Optimist Club of Chatham, whose motto is: “A Friend of Youth.”
Optimist Club members attend each of the VIP graduations; they present the students with a VIP T-shirt, offer congratulations and encourage them to be good citizens.
VIP students meet their VIP officer on six different occasions and build a positive rapport that can last a lifetime. Lessons taught to students such as shoplifting awareness, victims and vandals, the dangers of drugs and bullying and the laws are preventive in nature and allow students to evaluate the consequences of negative behaviour before they are caught up in it.
