The Marco Island Squadron of Civil Air Patrol is celebrating the first week of November as Red Ribbon Week to spread an anti-drug message nationwide and commemorate the anti-drug efforts of Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a narcotics agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration who was murdered by drug traffickers in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In 1990, the Department of Defense joined in the national effort to observe Red Ribbon Week and encouraged service members to keep communities drug-free by recognizing outstanding outreach programs. During this week CAP members and others will display a red ribbon reading “Better Things to do than Drugs”

Locally Civil Air Patrol’s 2nd Lt. Jay Blanco is the local Drug Demand Reductions Officer and he is leading the 19th Annual Red Ribbon Week Observance. He is available to present this program to any local groups or organizations that request it.

As we begin celebrating Red Ribbon Week, we would like to take a moment to mark the importance of its mission: promoting a firm anti-drug stance across the nation. As we continue our outreach with Civil Air Patrol’s Drug Demand Reduction and Counter-drug efforts, we would like to recognize all of our volunteers who give their time and effort to keep our communities members, senior and cadet, free of the harmful influence of drug use.

We encourage individual active observance by joining us in a pledge to remain drug free! We cannot impress upon today’s society enough that drug abuse is detrimental to the futures of our youth and disqualifying for professional careers, especially ones in public service, government, and the armed forces. The goal is to continue the excellent efforts set forth by all of our members by building upon our partnerships with youth, community, and law enforcement programs that share the cooperative mission of fighting the war on drugs.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 57,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 90 lives in fiscal year 2008. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 67 years.

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