A Timmins teen is sharing her passion for the D.A.R.E. program with the world.
Earlier this year, Alexya Racicot was chosen as Canada’s first-ever member for the International Youth Advisory Board for Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.). In the spring, she will be representing Canada in Stockholm, Sweden, at the 2018 World Federation Against Drugs event. The trip will be her third as a youth D.A.R.E. representative, as the 16-year-old has been to Hawaii and Texas in the past year.
The Youth Advisory Board, she explained, helps police officers see the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program from the perspective of a youth.
Racicot, who wants to be a police officer and teach D.A.R.E., graduated from the program in Grade 6. Her teacher was Timmins Police Const. Rick Lemieux, who nominated Racicot for the youth board.
They were reunited last year when Racicot was doing a Grade 11 co-op placement at Timmins Police.
While most students want to be out with the road officers, Racicot was asking to be with Lemieux at the schools.
“Just seeing her in the classrooms with the kids, she was part of the group, she was helping out in class and I thought man this is somebody that I want representing this program,” he said.
Seeing him back in action left an impression on Racicot as well.
“That influenced me in a good way too because I saw him in Grade 6 teach me, but all throughout the years I saw that he still has that love for the D.A.R.E. program too and he still believes that it can help students make good decisions in life,” she said.
The two were back in action today.
This year she is attending high school in North Bay at Ecole Secondaire Publique l’Odysee, where she is playing for the Midget AA hockey team. While she was in town for a dentist appointment, she made time for the D.A.R.E. lesson at Ecole Catholique Anicet-Morin.
