It was graduation day Thursday at Newburg Elementary. Thirty-nine fifth-graders from Christy Campbell’s and Betty Gibson’s classes graduated after completing a 10-week program that could benefit them the rest of their lives — the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department DARE program.

DARE, an acronym for Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education, helps to educate students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and other substance abuse. It also reinforces students’ techniques to say “no” to drugs and alcohol when they are feeling peer pressure.

“We spend two weeks on alcohol and another two weeks on drug-abuse education,” said Deputy Jim Anderson, the Sheriff’s Department DARE officer. “The other sessions involve ways to say no, dealing with peer pressure and substance-abuse education.”

Part of the 20-hour curriculum includes writing an essay about how the DARE program has helped students. Two students, one from each class, were chosen to read their winning essays during the graduation ceremony.

Those two students — Kristen Shaffer and Ben Harman — were recognized for their essays.

“DARE has helped me to learn the dangers of drugs and alcohol,” concluded Harman.

The ceremony included a recap of the class from Anderson and Sheriff’s Department Senior Detective Andy Davis told a story about an athlete who resisted drugs and alcohol while playing minor-league professional football on the Amsterdam team of the European Football League.

“While others around him failed, he knew he could do better,” said Davis telling the Kurt Warner story of obscurity to ultimately become the Most Valuable Player in the NFL.

Repeatedly, Davis told of Warner’s perseverance as an athlete in high school, college, semi-pro and ultimately in the professional ranks to reach the pinnacle of sports.

“He succeeded while others around him were tempted because he knew he could do better,” Davis said. “That quarterback is Kurt Warner.”

The ceremony also included fourth-graders, who will be next year’s DARE class and parents of many of the graduates. It also included a performance by the sixth-grade band.

DARE 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.

DARE is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.