200 Children Get Running Start Against Drugs : Rally: Saturday’s track and field meet promotes competition and charity while also giving students a healthy dose of drug awareness.

His brow furrowed in concentration, 9-year-old David Ruvolo fell into a runner’s crouch when the starter raised his revolver in the air.

As the shot from the starting pistol split the humid air, Ruvolo leaped from the starting line, never losing his lead on the pack of seven runners who huffed and puffed the long 50 yards to the yellow police tape.

“My friends thought I was going to be beat,” Ruvolo said happily as he stood panting in the middle of the grassy track of the John Ward Athletic Field at Rancho Santiago College’s Santa Ana campus. “(But) I did it.”

Ruvolo was one of about 200 county children who gathered to participate in Saturday’s 13th annual Children’s Track and Field Meet, sponsored by the Santa Ana Police Department and the city’s Community Oriented Policing Assn. to promote charity, drug awareness and a healthy sense of competition.

The meet for children ages 7 to 12 offered a day of fun and laughter, but it also allowed police and community leaders one more opportunity to convey the familiar and serious message: “Say No To Drugs.”

The track meet offered first-, second- and third-place medals in six events: a 100-yard run, a 75-yard run, a 50-yard run, a softball toss, a long jump and an obstacle course.

The local Elks lodge and Rancho Santiago College funded the event.

The half-hour anti-drug rally that preceded the competition was interrupted for about five minutes by a sudden but short cloudburst that soaked the onlookers and sent the children scurrying for cover. Other than that, the meet went on without a hitch.

Olympic gold medal winners Steve Lewis and Danny Everett, world champion hurdler Kevin Young and actors Dan Fischman and Reginald Veljohnson were invited by the Police Department to sign autographs and help spread the message that illegal drugs are harmful.

Fischman, a stand-up comic, is best known for his character Arvid, the nerdy but brilliant student in the television sitcom “Head of the Class.”

Veljohnson has a starring role in the television series “Family Matters” and played the helpful policeman in the motion picture “Die Hard,” starring Bruce Willis. He is also starring in the sequel, “Die Hard 2; Die Harder.”

“I’m pretty athletic myself,” Fischman told the crowd of kids, parents and friends who had lined up on the bleachers at 9:30 a.m. “In fact, I’m doing a commercial for a fitness center. I played the guy named ‘Before.’ ”

Then Fischman launched into his pitch for the children to stay away from drugs, talking about lost careers he has seen among fellow comedians and actors who have become addicted to drugs.

“It drives them right down to the ground,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing. We can have a lot of fun without it.”

Plans for this year’s track meet began three months ago, when the Police Department sent flyers to schools, churches and youth organizations throughout the county, police spokeswoman Gloria Perez said.

The flyers sparked the interest of some of the county’s most athletically inclined youngsters, Perez said. But they came not only to participate in their favorite track events but also to enjoy the upbeat, anti-drug speeches.

The children’s only fee to enter the contest was a can of food, which will be given to needy families in Santa Ana at Christmastime, Perez said.

“We just want to show the better part of law enforcement,” said Officer Art Morales, who took the job of announcer for the day. “These kids are under a lot of peer pressure in their neighborhoods (to use drugs and join gangs). We want to show them that we care and there’s a positive side to us.”

Indeed, some parents said that they actively pursue weekend activities such as the Children’s Track Meet to keep their children’s minds and bodies occupied on something more positive than drugs.

Rosie Toffolla of Santa Ana beamed when her 8-year-old daughter Vanessa came running to where her mother was sitting, clutching two medals. Vanessa, who hopes to be a dancer, earned a gold medal in her age group for the obstacle race and a silver medal for the long jump.

Vanessa joined many of the children who cheered wildly when Santa Ana Policeman John Reed talked about the evils of drugs.

“She is totally against that, but she’s well aware of it,” Rosie Toffolla said. “She knows what it can do to people, that it can destroy them.”

Reed set up a display that showed dirty needles, crack, and photos of arms and necks ruined by needle marks.

One display showed a series of mug shots of the same woman, who was arrested several times. The pictures graphically illustrated her deteriorating condition from drug abuse.

“It’s gross,” said 12-year-old Omar Cordero, looking at the picture display. “She got old really fast, didn’t she?”

Standing on the sidelines watching the 75-yard races, Reed said that it was satisfying to see dozens of schoolchildren he has met during his weekly drug abuse prevention programs now come up to him and joke around.

“Teaching these kids to respond to different things and to see us as a positive force helps build relationships,” he said. “It goes a long way to encourage them to do well.”