At Makin’ It Happen’s Red Ribbon Breakfast October 26th, students from nine schools in the greater Manchester region took on our Zero Left Challenge to distribute Deterra bags along with safe use, storage and disposal guidelines. The challenge was designed to expand awareness within their schools and communities to build upon substance use prevention. Deterra bags, or formally identified as Deterra Deactivation and Disposal System, are used as a safe way to dispose of medications that are no longer necessary. The deTerra bags can be used at home and are activated with tap water.
Students were given the choice between two challenges to either give away 50 (challenge 1) or 100 (challenge 2) bags by November 3rd. Schools that completed their respective challenge first were awarded with a pizza party from a restaurant of their choice! The winners of Zero Left Challenge 1 received a pizza party for 10 and a feature on our social media, while the winners of Zero Left Challenge 2 had a pizza party for 20, were featured on our social media channels, and will be recorded for our 2024 Life Of A Teen (LOAT) podcast series!
We are happy to announce, the winner of Zero Left Challenge 1 was Central High School. Zero Left Challenge 2 had a three-way tie between Manchester School of Technology, Bedford High School, and West High School! We are so proud of all the students that eagerly stepped up to the challenge, and took the time to help raise awareness about safe use, storage and disposal of medications. Although not every group participated in the challenge, all groups helped raise awareness, and assisted in distribution of the bags and information – this is an amazing example of collective action, leading to collective impact. Over 750 deterra bags were distributed, and who knows how many prevention conversations took place, prevention in action!
The students’ involvement in keeping their communities safe is admirable and we look forward to supporting them in 2024.
Photos By Stacy Harrison
