OJAI : Money Donated for Anti-Drug Program

Ojai Valley residents are heeding a deputy’s call for help to propel their popular anti-drug program into its sixth year.

Within two weeks after announcing that his $2,500 fund for materials was “close to bankrupt,” Deputy John Christie, Ojai’s DARE officer with the Sheriff’s Department, said donations of more than $1,000 poured into the Ojai substation and more are on their way.

“A lot of the business people and private citizens have walked into” the Police Department, Christie said, “and written out checks.” In addition, several service clubs have pledged to make donations next week after their officers approve specific amounts.

Christie is in his third year of warning about 500 fifth-grade pupils in 10 public and private schools throughout the Ojai Valley about the dangers of substance abuse. He praised the community’s response.

The deputy, whose salary is paid by the Sheriff’s Department and the city of Ojai, said he normally relies on community donations to buy the distinctive DARE T-shirts, pens, notebooks, graduation awards and other “incentives.” However, Christie said he only learned in mid-July that the Ventura Unified School District had scheduled Oak View and Arnaz elementary schools to start classes Monday.

“I went into a panic mode,” he said. “It put pressure on me to ask for money because nobody informed me that they were going to year-round schools.”

In another effort to collect money for the program, the Ojai Valley Entertainment Center will hold a three-day fund-raiser for the DARE program over the Labor Day holiday weekend. The business will donate 75% of its proceeds from discounted bowling and 100% of raffle-ticket receipts, said Danielle Branen, a bowling alley employee.

“The owners, Joseph and Sheri Borgaro, have kids that age who will soon go through the DARE program,” Branen said. “The fifth grade is the time to reach them. If we don’t get them today, the (drug) pushers will get them tomorrow.”