TYLER, Texas — Tyler ISD's Peete Elementary School celebrated Red Ribbon Week with a special book parade on Thursday.
"Today [Thursday] we are celebrating Red Ribbon Week and so we had our storybook character parade in order to bring literacy in a fun way for all of the students we decided to have students dress up like like a storybook character," Principal Larena Brooks said. "Every student in our school had the option to participate and dress up. And so with our theme of drug-free looks like me the students selected a book of their choice, their favorite character, their favorite author and from there they decided on a costume that matched one of the characters in the book that they selected."
"The book's name is 'Pete the Cat,' and 'Pete the Cat' is the person that I am being," said student Mason Hawkins said. "Why I picked out this book, I like 'Pete the Cat' shoes, they change colors."
"This year we had students really checking out books in the library, asking questions and really discussing the different genres of the text that they selected," Brooks said. "So it has really promoted literacy on our campus."
"The name of the book is 'Splat the Cat, What Was That?," student Liliana Kelener said. "It was about scary stuff. I like to read because it makes me learn a lot more."
"We are a Leader and Me campus, so this activity helps bring everybody and whether they decide to dress up or they are supporting on the sidelines encouraging their peers everybody has a role in this event," Brooks said.
Red Ribbon Week is the nation's largest and longest-running drug-use prevention campaign.
According to the National Family Partnership (NFP), since its beginning in 1985, the Red Ribbon has touched the lives of millions of people around the world. In 1988, NFP sponsored the first National Red Ribbon Celebration. Today, the Red Ribbon serves as a catalyst to mobilize communities to educate youth and encourage participation in drug prevention activities.