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VETERANS AGAINST DRUGS PROGRAM
Spreading The Word
BY DAVE SIMMONS, DIRECTOR

This is an exciting time for the Veterans Against Drugs Program, which is now completely sponsored and supported by VVA’s Veterans Support Foundation (formerly the Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund). VSF has worked to make Veterans Against Drugs a program that will continue to reach out to communities across the country with a positive message for America’s youth.

The members of our program have worked for over a year to expand our message into new areas and to make our lesson plans and materials easier for members, chapters, state councils, and other VSOs to use.

At the VVA National Leadership Conference in Greenville, South Carolina, we were fortunate to have several panels of the Lost Dreams on Canvas display on exhibit. Each painting is created by a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts who selects a photograph of a young person cut down by violence or illegal drug use and creates a portrait as a tribute to this victim. What results is a moving and permanent reminder of the young lives that are lost to drugs and violence every day in America. Many panels make up the complete display; we were able to display only a small part. Many thanks to Ray Bates of Philadelphia for taking the time and effort to loan us panels.

I want to thank Carol Engle for her help, support, and hard work on the new Veterans Against Drugs webpage at http://www.vvafund.org/vad.html VAD soon will be able to offer members, chapters, state councils, and other VSOs an easy way to get the literature needed to present a successful Veterans Against Drugs program. All three programs will be available and accessible to everyone in an easy-to-read-and-use format. Each of the five Core Values of the Anti-Drug, Anti-Violence, and Patriotism programs will have complete lesson plans. We hope that everyone will take the time to visit the new website. There is a link on the VVA website, www.vva.org
For additional information please contact me at dsimmons@vsf-usa.org