Red Ribbon Week Essay Contest

First place winners:


Do it for me

by Scot MacKenzie, eighth grade

Dear Grandpa,

As your grandson I believe it is one of my responsibilities to attempt to persuade you to stop smoking. I know my aunts and uncles have already tried to convince you to stop, but I believe I can make you do it, because I am your youngest grandchild and I haven’t had as many experiences with you as they all have because of your smoking.

I know you have smoked since you were in the army as a teenager, but I believe if you really try for me you can quit. Any one can do any thing they just have to put their head to it. As I get older you get older and smoking is affecting you more and more. As you grow nearer to your meeting with God, I need you there for me as I become a man; I need someone to teach me. There are three main reasons you need to quit: to be there for the family, to teach me and to be able to do anything you want before you pass.

When you were visiting me this summer I finally realized how smoking has taken a toll on you. I would hear you cough at night and know that you couldn’t sleep because you couldn’t breathe. Trust me I know how you feel I have asthma and it is hard for me to breathe also. I know that you will never be able to do anything you used to because you have virtually been killing yourself from the inside-out, because of this you can never help with things or teach me sports like you did my cousins. I know that there are many things that you want to do but can’t because they are too hard on your body, I see this as a shame because it all could have been prevented.

I am not thirteen and becoming a man, and I think that there are just some things that a grandfather should tell and teach his grandson. One thing is that everyman should know how to shoot a gun and the best way to learn is from the most experienced person. I believe that there are other things that you must teach me, but you will be gone by the time that those things must take place. There fore your smoking isn’t only cheating you of life, but it is also cheating the family and me of life.

I believe that another reason for you to quit is that you need to be around for the family and especially grandma. Grandma needs you and so does the rest of the family. We need to be there to do things like waking us up to see you dripping water on us, we need to be tricked by finding rubber snakes in the shower, we need you to tell stories at the dinner table, play pinochle during desert and to tuck us in before we go to bed. Without you doing these things, there is no fun and most of all no family.

please grandpa this is your last chance, I need you, the family needs you … to stop smoking. You don’t understand what life will be like with you gone. Grandma stopped smoking along time a go, I think if she can, you can too. So please, stop smoking for me your youngest grandchild and grandson. I love you and I don’t want you to go away.

I wish you would stop!

by Krystine Roach, seventh grade

Dear Aunt Kim,

I really wish you would stop smoking. Smoking is very bad for you and the people around you, such as your two children. Did you know that smoking is the leading cause of Respiratory infections (bronchitis and Pneumonia)
Asthma (it can trigger attacks for those who already have it)
Coughing, sore throats, sneezing, and sniffling.

Cancer and heart disease?
Every time I go to visit you, everything in your house smells like cigarettes and it stinks! Also when I am around it a lot I get really sick with an allergy or something like that. I hate it when you smoke around Halee especially in the car. So for my sake will you please stop smoking?! Do you want me to keep getting sick when I’m around you? I don’t, because when I am sick we can’t have as good as a time together if I was well. Because that Second hand smoke really gets to me you know. Please stop smoking around me, and everyone else as well. Do you know what is making me sick “Scientific terms” (Secondhand smoke!) Here is some background information about it incase you didn’t know.

Cigarettes, Cigars, and pipes have thousands of toxic chemicals such as, Arsenic, and Ammonia, and Hydrogen Cyanide. These toxic chemicals are called carcinogens. High concentrations of these chemicals are also found in secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is the smoke that comes out when a smoker exhales the smoke coming off of the end of the cigarette, pipe, or cigar. Secondhand smoke may seem pretty harmless, but it is just as bad as actually smoking. To prevent secondhand smoke some of the few things you can do are: Always wash your hands and change your clothes before holding/touching an infant or a child. Infants are most prone to getting sick, because of secondhand smoke and always being around it. Another thing you can do is never smoke inside your house or car when others are inside with you, puffing out of the side window doesn’t do much to prevent secondhand smoke.

If you ban smoking within your house you are less likely to have your children that smoke. You should teach your children at a young age, not to smoke, because it is extremely bad for your health.

Even women that smoke regularly during pregnancy are more at risk for birth defects and the unborn child is most at risk of becoming a smoker at the age of seventeen or eighteen. Also a smoking parent’s behavior can prompt kids to smoke for example when they say phrases like “hey kids go get my ashtray” or “hey go get my cigarettes and my lighter.”

Did you know that one third of kids with (attention Defecate disorder) can blame their mothers for smoking during pregnancy. Another thing smoking during pregnancy can do to your baby is lower the weight at birth and make them become more prone to obesity by the age of eight. As well as putting them at an extremely high risk for heart disease. Smoking in pregnancy is also a cause for mental health problems such as, depression and anxiety disorder. Pregnant women who quit smoking by the fifteenth week of their pregnancy reduce the risk of their baby becoming a smoker.

Some of the things smoking can cause are: gingivitis (gum disease), bad breath, yellow teeth, brittle bones, yellow brittle fingernails, bad hair with color change, and wrinkles.

I hope you understand the dangerous hazards of smoking. So please Aunt Kim stop smoking! Remember you aren’t only destroying your body, your destroying your harming our family’s bodies as well. You should seriously consider stopping smoking. Everyone around you, life is at risk. Please stop smoking.

Second place winners:


I wish you would stop!

by Azha Lewis, eighth grade


Dear Aunt Sally,

Hello. I haven’t heard from you in a while. How are you? I’m fine but I have something important that I want to share with you. I would like you to have an open mind because you may not want to hear what I am about to tell you and the topic you may have heard many times before.

In health class today we were learning about smoking and how it affects not only the user but the people around them and it made me think of you. The things I learned made me very concerned about your health and the health of your kids.
Aunt Sally, I really wish you would stop smoking, and here are the reasons why.

 Smoking leads to lung cancer and throat cancer etc. Which all lead to death. I don’t want you to die. I have also heard your kids say they do to. Statistics even show that most kids end up smoking because a parent or a person they trust was smoking around or in front of them making them think they was no harm in smoking.

Did you know that every time you inhale and exhale your cigarette, you lose 5-20 mins of your life? I don’t know exactly how long you’ve been smoking but I’m 13 and you have been smoking for as long as I can remember. Considering this, you have lost a lot of life. You can’t make up the time you’ve already lost but you can prevent losing anymore if you would just stop smoking! Have you ever stopped to think how devastated our lives would be if you were to die today because of the cancer your smoking caused? Have you stopped to think how much of your kids’ lives you will miss if you were to die today? Aunt Sally, if you were to die today everyone would miss you terribly. Our studies also talked about the effects of secondhand smoke. Your kids are at risk because you smoke around them.

I remember a time when Chelsea received an award and you were not there because you were off smoking. Our family would be a more cheerful if you there celebrating with us and not off smoking.

I hope you take all of this into consideration. I know the process of quitting will be hard because of the addiction to the nicotine in the cigarette, but if you really want it you will be able to do it.

We learned there are many different ways to quit smoking. You can quit cold-turkey, but I hear that is the hardest way to go. You can quit by going to a group session with other people who are also trying to stop. You can find a hobby and spend all of your time doing that. You can even look online for many other tips on how to stop. These are all good ways to stop and each way is different for everyone.

Aunt Sally, as I close this letter, I want you to know that I care about you and I’m concerned about your health. I hope the points I have made in this letter have given you some things to think about and hopefully you will quit smoking. I love you.

I wish you would stop!

by Britney Faught, seventh grade

Dear Aunt Silvia,

You are one of the most important people in my life. You may not know it but I love you very much. It hurts me to see how you are wasting your life away, by drinking instead of being the Aunt I know you can be. You need to stop drinking because I can see how the alcohol is starting to affect you. Your wounds are not healing; you are getting skinnier and skinnier; and you often lose your appetite. I see how you are slowly dying. I do not want to have to see my Aunt die in front of my eyes.

 Alcohol has already taken my Uncle as a casualty and now it wants you. Slowly alcohol is leading to your grave six feet under. If you just try to stop, I can help you get help from a counselor. You can go to an alcohol anonymous group. Mom says that it will not help you because you do not want to stop drinking. She says that in order to get you help you need to know you have a problem with drinking.

Aunt, I thought that the death of your brother would have opened your eyes so that you could see how harmful alcohol really is. He died of liver problems because alcohol destroyed his liver. Slowly you are following in his footsteps. He died so fast that I never had a chance to say goodbye. The thing is he never wanted to go get checked by the doctors. Will you pleas just go get checked? Maybe if they see something, they can stop it in time so that you will not die as Uncle did. Aunt Silvia, I love you so much and I do not want to have to say goodbye. So will you please open your eyes and see how you are hurting me and the pain you make me go through each day?

Third place winners:



I wish you would stop!

by Jessica Williams, eighth grade

Dear Lindsey,

I walk into class and see you sitting in the back of the room. Red, puffy eyes and a droopy look is what you look like. Two weeks ago you would have been a smiley and welcoming face, but not anymore. If we hadn’t been friends since the first grade I might not have noticed you. The Lindsey that I’ve spent hours with playing and joking around is not the one I see right now. You are not your normal self right now.

 The teacher calls on you for a math question and all you do is simply shrug it off. Math is your favorite subject in school; I used to go to you for help. Now, Mrs. Hill is asking me if you need help with math. I see your quizzes are blank and your homework is incomplete. These drugs are ruining your grades, Lindsey.

After class, I come up to you and ask how your weekend went. Your response is a cold shoulder. Just go away. I’m fine. Nothing. Those aren’t true answers. You canceled our plans to go to the new mall last week. I understood when you said that you had family plans; we all do. It brought me to tears when I saw you smoking with a ‘new’ group of friends outside school that afternoon.

I know you didn’t see me, but it hurts when you don’t care. I’m here for you and I want you to know that. Those kids you are hanging out with might think it is cool to do drugs, but it is really not. If it seems like everyone is doing things like that, well they are not. You have a great group of friends and an awesome life ahead of you, if you stop these things now. Drugs are harmful to your body and for you, soon you’ll become addicted and then it’s even harder to quit.

Whenever you are really sad or upset, drugs seem like a way out, but it’s only for a short time. If you’re sad or upset, I’m your shoulder to cry on. I would rather see you work this out because I don’t want you to throw your life away already. You are really smart and bright. It is not too late to get out of this. There are counselors out there that want to help you. You might feel weak going to them, but it’s ok. I will be with you. You are scaring me, and if you don’t come and talk to me soon, then I will go get somebody to help you. This needs to stop Lindsey, and you need help.

Take care of yourself, take care of each other
by Katherine Seebeck, seventh grade

When it comes to drugs and alcohol most teenagers think that it is not as big a deal as everyone says. The truth is that resisting drugs and alcohol is a bigger deal then anyone can say. Usually when teenagers do drugs they do not know what they are getting themselves into.

Around the world 2-5 million people die from drug and alcohol related accidents each year. It is not as easy as it looks to say no to drugs from a stranger, and it is even harder to say no to a friend. There are many reasons that we should say no to drugs, but three important things to consider are that drugs have long term effects, drugs do not only effect you but others as well, and once you do drugs it is very difficult to stop.

Drugs have long term effects. Alcohol is a drug and all drugs are poisons that can harm your body to unfixable extents when misused. Even addicts that have quit drugs and gone through rehab have reported that they still have horrible memory loss, paranoia, lung problems, and aches and pains where the drugs were injected. Most drugs also age you; some drugs can even shorten your life up to 10 years. Even if a drug addict quits and goes through rehab their life would never be the same as it would have if they did not do drugs.

Drugs do not only effect and harm your life but they also effect and harm the life of your family and innocent bystanders. By doing illegal drugs you are less likely to make as good of choices as you would if you were not on the drug. For instance driving under the influence of a drug is one of the most common ways to die. Almost all drugs, when not used correctly, slow your reaction time. This makes it harder to make instant decisions, which is necessary when driving.

By driving under the influence you are not only putting your self in danger but everyone on the road as well. Drugs also affect the way you communicate. They can cause you to cut off ways that you communicate, and change the way you relate to your mother, father, and siblings. In other words everyone is affected by your choice.

Once you are addicted to drugs it can be very hard to stop. Once you are a drug addict you are always a drug addict. This does not mean that you can not stop doing drugs, but it means that you may never recover 100%. Being addicted to a drug means that all your mind wants is that drug. Recovered drug addicts say that they could not communicate with friends or family.

They say that they could barely finish a thought or sentence and they would mumble and no one would understand them.

There are horrible risks associated with doing drugs. Before you say yes to a drug, think of what it will do to you. Remember that drugs have long term effects, drugs do not only affect you but others as well, and once you do drugs it is very difficult to stop. It is harder than it looks to say no to a drug, especially when it seems like everyone around you is doing it. But if you say no to drugs, it will be worth it in the end.