February 2018

D.A.R.E. Officers

Iowa D.A.R.E. Association Members

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you and your families to Decorah for the 2018 Iowa D.A.R.E. Training Conference which will be held July 15, 16, and 17, 2018.  Plans for the event have been moving along and I would like to share with you some of the things we have lined up.

On Sunday night we will have a meet and greet with a family pizza party. 

On Monday we will have a full day of classes.  Joe Keil will be the speaker for the day. Joe will talk about crime scenes, prescription meds and the side effects affecting kids, clothing identifiers and much much more 

Joe is a retied 29-year veteran of law enforcement and received extensive training through the Drug Evaluation and Classification Program Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration becoming a certified Drug Recognition Expert Instructor. Mr. Keil has trained thousands of law enforcement officers, medical professionals, teachers, and young adults across the United States.

Joe has also written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on drug related issues including drug trends, physiology of the human body and substance abuse, K-9s and their usage during traffic stops. Keil is also a published author of the book “When Just Say No Doesn’t Work, “a comprehensive guide to recognizing substance abuse, and Operation RUSH, a guide to criminal patrol.

On Tuesday we will have a speaker Ruth Buckels with Teens Against Human Trafficking from Ames and a victim Christi Geisler speak about her story.

As always, we have some members who make the training conference part of their summer vacation.  Feel free to make some great memories if you wish in our area.

Please feel free to reserve your hotel rooms at any time and state that you are with the DARE Conference for reservations. Once again D.A.R.E. Iowa   will be paying for Sunday and Monday night at the Country Inn and Suites for all Iowa D.A.R.E. members.  Please call for your reservations to Country Inn & Suites located at 2042 State Highway 9 Decorah, Iowa 52101 and phone number is 563-382-9646. Any questions please email shendrickson@decorahia.org or call Officer Hendrickson at the Decorah Police Department 563-382-3667.

 Sara Hendrickson

President

Iowa D.A.R.E. Association

 IOWA D.A.R.E. CONFERENCE 2017

The Iowa D.A.R.E. Training Conference was held in LeMars, Iowa on June 18, 19, and 20, 2017. Our host was then President Jay King. King did a fantastic job with the conference.

Sunday began with a great meal along with awesome Blue Bunny ice cream sundaes at know other than the Blue Bunny ice cream parlor. We ate and then enjoyed a great laugh with “The Amazing Arthur Fratelli” a great mentalist, comedian, and entertainer.  Every one of all ages were laughing and enjoying the great show with awesome audience participation.

On Monday, we got off to a great start at the convention center with presentation of “Speaking of Harvey” with Scott Harvey.  Harvey using his logo IamSomeone, he stresses that the someone you’ve been waiting on to do something about the problem just might be you. Stop waiting on others to solve a problem that is in front of us because you are someone step up and be someone. Harvey also talked about the social media in today lives and the impact on society.  We need to always be listening and sometimes we just need to take the time and be someone and that can make a difference in not only our lives but sometimes even someone else’s life.  After Harvey then we changed things up and learned about how to work and deal with Autism.  Dennis Debbaudt  from Florida spoke about working with individuals with Autism and how to approach when interacting with them and what we can do to help understand them and how we can make them feel comfortable when we deal with them and be able to understand them easier and what we can do to approach things easier for everyone.  This speaker was sponsored and made possible by the Autism Society of Iowa.

Several awards were given out during our Monday luncheon. They included the following:

Winners of the Poster Contest include:

Best Message – Megan ? Marshall County Sheriff’s Office

Most Creative – Jairo Gomez Marshall County Sheriff’s Office

Best Overall – Saydai Roling Clinton County Sheriff’s Office

Neatness – Aliya Soibel Clinton County Sheriff’s Office

Essay Winners:

Overall Essay winner- Delanie Wright Roosevelt Middle School Dubuque Officer Rick Fullmer

Honorable Mention - Zach Schomaker  Lincoln Elementary Spencer Officer Kyle Van Otterloo

Honorable Mention -Ava Scranton St. Pats School Anamosa Deputy Jason Feldmann Jones County S. O.

Honorable Mention -Tristan Rheingans  Central Intermediate School DeWitt Deputy Stacey Bussie Clinton County

Peer Recognition Award: Ross Eiden- Forest City Police Department

Five Star Teacher Award: Dan Stepan – Turkey Valley School

Lifetime Achievement Award:  Sgt. Jay King LeMars Police Department & Chief Stuart Dekkenga LeMars     Police Department

Five Star Volunteer Award: Michelle Schaefer from Hampton

On Tuesday, we went over the High School  D.A.R.E  Program and D.A.R.E. Iowa update given by Jon Sheahan and Terry Demlow. After this we concluded the conference with area meetings and then finished with a board meeting to visit about the conference and plan for next year.

Thanks Jay King for all your hard work and another great conference.

Theme for 2018 is “Don’t Be a Zero, Be a DARE Hero “.  The conference will be held in Decorah for summer of 2018 and the date will be finalize soon.  Hope to see everyone at the conference in beautiful bluff country.

President Sara Hendrickson

Iowa D.A.R.E. Association