A Happenings4Youth project

Kid's artwork highlights new anti-drug program

Eight-year-old Destinee Hill has produced the feature artwork that will help publicize a new effort by Happenings4Youth.org to help local kids find meaningful after-school activities.

The new program takes its name from the headline on Destinee's artwork: "I've Got Better Things to Do Than Drugs."

Destinee is a 2nd grader at the Imagine Academy charter school in St. Louis. She made the artwork as part of a competition with other St. Louis city kids who were also in after-school programs.

Her artwork already has been used during a training period for teachers who head up a variety of after-school programs. The programs serve as a healthy alternative to what otherwise kids might do with idle time.

Mr. Dennis Trask is a counselor at the Imagine Academy and also works for St. Louis4 Kids. That organization already has created a website that lists hundreds of after-school activities and programs available for kids.

Trask said, "We will use Destinee's artwork as the feature of the new program to publicize our catalogue of healthy programs available for kids. We also will seek to publicize the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse by kids."

Destinee was pretty low-key about her winning entry. She said, "I just went outside and thought about what I'd draw. Then, it didn't take long to complete the art."

She said she did the contest entry while attending an after-school program at her regular school.

The after-school program provides a wide variety of activities and experiences for the kids. In addition to doing artwork, she said she's recently taken part in an African dance program.

She said she thought another art project she did was better than her anti-drug message. She said, "I did a drawing of my brother tackling one of my sisters. I thought that was my best artwork so far."

But, Mr. Trask said Destinee's competition artwork will serve just fine.

He said, "Her artwork features the type of bright colors that make it stand out on our printed materials."

Trask said Happenings4Youth is looking for media sponsors to "give added visibility" to the new substance-abuse message. He also said the media sponsors would help to spread the word about the after-school programs already available.

(If you're looking for constructive things to do after school, you ought to click on www.happenings4youth.org website. There are dozens of free or low-cost programs on a wide variety of subjects.

(The listings are separated by ZIP codes so you'll be able to find a program of interest that would be close to your home or school.)

On the website, Happenings4Youth said "only one in 10 children are consistently served by after-school programs."

The website said, "Non-school hours are the peak time for juvenile crime and risky behavior such as alcohol and drug use."

(For more information about after-school programs, you also can go to the St. Louis4Kids website at www.stlouis4kids.org.)

Trask said the current Happenings4Youth program is primarily focused on the city of St. Louis. However, he pointed out that the after-school activities list includes the whole metro area, including dozens of programs available in Illinois.

Destinee said her previous artwork also has included pictures of the ocean. She said she traveled to North Carolina with her family and got a chance to see the Atlantic Ocean.

She said one of her drawings featured "things that I imagined were in the ocean." Her drawing included an octopus, a seahorse, a whale and a shark.

She said she likes it when her after-school program includes a field trip.

One of her favorites was the visit to the Butterfly House at Faust Park in western St. Louis County.

However, she did get a little scared when one of the butterflies landed in her hair. "I screamed a little but the butterfly flew away," she said.

She said, in addition to art class, one of her favorite classes in school was science. She said she's been studying animals and electricity, including how electrical switches work.