Students wearing purple shirts filed in and out of classrooms, bringing an end to the week of Project Purple, part of a collaboration with First Call, a substance abuse prevention and treatment program. According to Sarah Johnson, SADD club sponsor, the goal of this initiative is to make healthy choices, which prompted her to collaborate with REbeL and Healthy Living Club.

“One of the main messages is that it isn’t necessarily say no to drugs like DARE would be, but more say yes to making healthy choices,” Johnson said. “So when we looked at doing it, we thought we could partner SADD with REbeL and Healthy Living Club to promote it this week.”

The week started off with a speech given by Nancy Pinkston, a former alcoholic who is now five years sober. Her speech was aimed at raising awareness to the dangers of binge drinking and to encourage girls to have respect for themselves and for their bodies.  

On Monday, students were given purple yarn to tie around their wrists to bring student’s attention to the Project Purple initiative and highlight the prominence of substance abuse in today’s society.

“We wanted something to create a mindfulness of the fact that we are celebrating this,” Johnson said. “So there are posters up around the school and so decided that the purple ribbon would be a great way to keep people thinking about making healthy choices without making a big deal.”

Tuesday was sponsored by REbeL. The group passed out compliment cookies at lunch and wrote down positive messages to share on Twitter in order to highlight positive self image with the student body.

“It’s important for girls to hear that they’re enough, because 95 percent of girls are unconfident about some part of their body,” junior Zoé Trouvé said. “I don’t think girls hear enough that they are perfect the way they are.”

On Wednesday, in a partnership with Healthy Living Club, students had an opportunity to walk around the track, highlighting the importance of making healthy choices and being active.
“One of the themes of Project Purple is that you don’t need drugs or alcohol to change who you are,” senior and Healthy Living Club president Rachael Beck said. “You are perfect the way you are, and we believe that the first step to achieving that realization is to have a healthy and active lifestyle.”