Printer Friendly Version - Guilford Youth Leadership is Purple Proud

Guilford High School Interact Club member Josh Stern, Danielle Ott of Guilford DAY, Mikayla Zeitlin of Guilford DAY, and Sean Hackett of Interact display the $1,500 grant check from Interact to DAY in support of DAY Week. Photo courtesy of Lorri Hahn

The Youth Advisory Group of Guilford High School’s Interact Club recently presented a check for $1,500 to Guilford DAY youth leaders in support of the DAY Week. During DAY Week, Guilford’s teens conceived and led an effort to create a healthy youth culture in our town, to encourage all youth to stand up and speak out and to take pride in living positively, and to help all kids find a path safe from alcohol and substance abuse.

“We believe youth leadership of this effort is crucial to our community,” said Danielle Ott, one of the youth co-chairs of DAY. “The majority of teens live clean and avoid alcohol and drug use, but messages from social networks, movies, TV, music, all create pressure on kids to ‘party.’ Our goal was to do things that make it very clear that many, many kids live clean, and to visibly demonstrate support for each other, and to help kids to stand up to negative peer pressure.”

DAY member Mikayla Zeitlin added, “Although DAY focuses mainly on Guilford’s high school and upper middle school students, the fact that we expanded DAY Week so that it reached those in Baldwin [Middle School], the elementary schools, and the adult community really united the entire town in a stance against substance abuse.”

The DAY youth committee conceived the ideas for DAY week, including displays of purple flags and ribbon and a color run that raised funds for Lifelinx, a local group that provides recovery support to people dealing with addiction. The Interact Youth Advisory Group recommended the $1,500 grant for DAY Week to the Guilford Foundation, specifically for the purple flag displays on the Guilford Green, GHS, Adams, Baldwin, St. George’s Catholic Church, the First Congregational Church, Christ Episcopal Church, North Guilford Congregational Church, the office of the Superintendent of Schools, Park & Rec., and Palumbo’s Automotive.

Six hundred purple flags and approximately two miles of purple ribbons were displayed around town during DAY Week. There were 334 participants in the Lifelinx color run and the event tripled the funds raised by Lifelinx in its past 5K recovery runs.

“We were blown away by the turnout by Guilford kids who participated in the color run,” said Lifelinx Executive Director Wayne Jarvis. “The explosion of color and the humor, fun and energy of all the kids was unbelievable. We are so appreciative of all the support from the DAY youth committee. All too often people in recovery feel a stigma and isolation from the community. This was truly wonderful.”

In addition to the color run and the displays of purple, the DAY youth committee led numerous events in the schools, and the Purple Proud pledge was signed by 898 students at GHS, 434 students at Adams, and 653 students at Baldwin.