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The first graders at Lakeside School in Chisago City may only take away one thing from their participation in Project Charlie this year, but that’s OK with Mike Delmont of the Lakes Area Police Department.

Delmont led the six-week program for the first grade students this year. He wants them to come away with the most important lesson that any young child can learn and asks each class to tell him what that is at the start of each class.

“What do I want you to remember?” he asks. “I am someone special,” they all respond.

Delmont brought a special friend along with him last Wednesday, March 2 for the last day of Project Charlie. “Safety Pup” delighted students by shaking their hands and giving many of them huge hugs as they were awarded with certificates of appreciation from Officer Delmont.

The focus of Project Charlie, which stands for Chemical Abuse Resolution Lies in Education, is to instill in the students that they are special and show them consructive ways of exhibiting their feelings.

“We talk about feelings and emotions,” Delmont said. “They know what a good feeling is – a warm fuzzy– and they know sometimes we also have angry feelings – cold pricklies and how to deal with those.”

Each 20-minute class session starts with Delmont going over the ground rules. The rules include listen, keep your space, put ups only (sharing a warm fuzzy, not a cold prickly with someone), the right to pass (pass to someone else when they don’t know the answer) and take a risk (answer the question even if you may not be sure of the right answer).

Delmont and safety pup started the day in Colleen Spjut’s and Cynthia Bassett’s classes. Students were excited to greet safety pup while trying to figure out who it really was under that big dog head and floppy ears.

Delmont’s lesson for the day was to point out how great it is that everyone is unique.

“What would it be like if we were all the same?” he asked. The students responded by telling him it would be boring and confusing if everyone was the same.

The assignment for the day was to complete a worksheet that highlighted different characteristics and experiences of other students in class. Squares on a sheet of paper asked the students to fill in the names of other students in spaces like, “who has blue eyes?” “who has been camping?” or “who has a dog or cat?”

Project Charlie is a pre-DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program sponsored by the LAPD. Delmont said it fits perfectly with what they are trying to accomplish with the DARE program. He is excited that the DARE program will be expanded and offered to third, fifth and seventh graders in the district next year.

CLHS freshman Kristine Weise and junior Ashlee Lange helped out with the Project Charlie program this year.

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