Red Ribbon Week is a national drug prevention program that reaches millions of young people each year. This program started in 1985 as a response to a murder of a DEA Agent named Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. He was assigned to the Guadalajara, Mexico office to capture the biggest cocaine and marijuana traffickers in the country. Camarena was about to reveal a drug pipeline when he got kidnapped, tortured, and beaten to death on February 7, 1985. He was missing for 26 days until March 5,1985. The drug cartel left a wife widowed and three children fatherless. After Camarena’s death, Congressman Duncan Hunter and one of Camarena’s friends named Henry Lorenzo created the Red Ribbon Week program to honor the lives that are risked and taken in the service of making the world safe from drugs. Camarena did not just lose his life for his job, but he also lost his life trying to keep drugs off the street. We celebrate Red Ribbon Week beginning in elementary school, so we can learn at a young age that we have the privilege to have a choice and power to say NO to drugs.

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Enrique with his wife Mika Camaren who is pregnant with their third son Erik Camaren and his older son Enrique Camaren Jr. and second son Daniel Camaren. justthinktwice.gov

Fairhope High School is celebrating Red Ribbon the week of October 25th – 29th with the following themes :