Corporate and Community Leaders Come Out to Support CADCA

Nearly 400 people representing a variety of corporations and organizations joined CADCA for its 12th Annual Drug Free Kids Campaign Awards Dinner in Alexandria, Va. Sept. 21. The event honored Reckitt Benckiser and Christopher Kennedy Lawford for their support of CADCA's efforts to create safe, healthy and drug-free communities. Reckitt Benckiser was named CADCA's 2010 Humanitarian of the Year, and actor, activist and New York Times bestselling author Christopher Kennedy Lawford received the Champion for a Drug-Free Kids Award. Shaun Thaxter, President of Reckitt Benckiser Global Pharmaceuticals, who accepted the award on Reckitt's behalf, stressed the importance of prevention and recovery methods in his remarks, noting that thousands of people with opioid addiction have benefited by medication assisted treatment. Lawford, who has been in recovery for more than two decades, joked how he would have never guessed that being an addict would eventually earn him an award. He discussed the importance of evidence-based prevention and of granting more people access to quality treatment and recovery services.

CADCA's National Youth Leadership Initiative trainers Melanee Anne Piskai and Khiree Smith, illustrated the reasons why CADCA and its coalitions work day-in and day-out to ensure youth are educated and engaged as leaders in alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention.

General Arthur Dean, CADCA's Chairman and CEO, told the audience the good news from a recent evaluation of the Drug-Free Communities program-that rates of youth substance use are lower in communities with DFC coalitions. He also shared some bad news that National Survey on Drug Use and Health data shows a 9 percent increase in overall drug use between 2008 and 2009. "What is required first and foremost is a major investment upstream in prevention, combined with an emphasis on early intervention, treatment, law enforcement and support for people in recovery," Dean stressed.

To round out the evening, members of the Morgan State University choir performed a series of spirituals and standards that brought the audience to its feet. And the enthusiasm was evidently contagious because two singers from the choir became members of CADCA following the dinner.