TRIMONT — Trimont Police Chief Ross Wiggin is excited to have brought the DARE program to Martin County West’s Trimont Elementary students.

While the program itself has been around for decades, Wiggin believes it is still relevant for youth today. He explained the concepts behind the program, as well as how he recently implemented it with fifth-grade students.

“DARE has been around for years now, and it is designed to teach ‘drug abuse resistance education,'” he said. “We try to implement it at various grades depending on the needs of the school. For instance, I started with the fifth-grade class, but you can really tailor it to any age at any grade level.

“It’s a 10-week course, and we meet once a week and that culminates with a graduation ceremony at the end of that 10-week period.”

When asked how the program has changed from the past, Wiggin said it has incorporated new things.

“DARE has been good at keeping it relevant and updated because times have changed so much,” he noted. “Now there are components that talk about cyber-bullying and just bullying in general. I’m guessing that 30 years ago that component may have been a small part of it, but now it plays a much larger role.

“There’s also a piece that deals with over-the-counter prescription medication, and a little bit about marijuana that was probably not in the curriculum years ago.”

When asked about getting the process started, Wiggin said there were a number of hoops to jump through.

“I just started it this school year,” he said. “I went through a two-week DARE certification class out in South Dakota. Minnesota has them as well, but there wasn’t anything in the remaining part of the year. So that allowed me to be a certified DARE instructor.

“I pitched the idea to the city first, and they were thrilled and 100 percent supportive and gave me the green light to go forward. At that point, I went before the Martin County West School Board and it was very well-received. At that point, we started to finalize the plan on when we were going to implement it and what grade we were going to target to begin with.

“Chad Brusky, the principal there, helped all of this come together, I’ve never seen a principal connect with the kids the way he does and I couldn’t have made this happen without his support. The teachers were very supportive and helped me out tremendously, as did the paras that are in the classroom as well. It really was a team effort, I can’t stress that enough.”

Wiggin said he is pleased to be making the DARE program part of his career, and shared where he plans to go with it from here.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for about 21 years, and I have to say teaching DARE is one of the highlights,” he said. “It’s a thrill and the classroom setting was very new to me. But I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome, and just reaching out to the kids and trying to impact them in a positive way is what DARE is really all about.

“I’m going to start teaching the kindergarten version of DARE after they get back from Christmas break. Then beyond that there’s a lot of room to add grades if the school board decides to go that route. There’s a lot of flexibility built into the program.

“I can’t say enough about the DARE program, it’s remarkable.”