The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net FREEPORT - Fifteen junior high students from Grand Bahama will attend the Peer Leadership Camp in New Providence to learn about drug prevention and develop their leadership skills. The camp will host 31 young people from throughout the Bahamas June 23 through 30 at the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Base. Dr Bridgette Rolle, administrator of the Bahamas National Drug Council, said the largest contingent of students selected to attend the camp are from Grand Bahama. She added that 10 students will come from Nassau, and the remaining five students from San Salvador, Exuma, Eleuthera and Andros. Dr Michael Darville, the Minister for Grand Bahama, met with participants on Grand Bahama at the YMCA and commended them on being selected. Ms Rolle said participants range in age from 12 to 15 years old. She noted that the first phase was an essay competition, where individuals were required to submit an essay about the impact of drugs on their life, their school and the community. Based on the essays, participants were selected to go on to the second phase - the Peer Leadership Camp. At camp, students will learn about drugs, drug abuse, and drug prevention. They will also develop leadership and conflict resolution skills, and be given the chance to develop various individual skills and talents. "We are very happy to be hosting this camp. At the end we will select 20 of the 31 students to go forward to the final phase which is known as 2012 Youth Expression Initiative," she said. Ms Rolle said those final participants will take part in a "photo camp" sponsored by the National Geographic Society. They will meet with Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade, be taken on a ride aboard the US Embassy's drug interdiction vessel and have a first-hand look at the OPBAT helicopter. Joseph Darville, an executive of the Bahamas National Drug Council, said the students will benefit tremendously from the camp because they will develop and learn valuable skills they can pass on to their peers when they return to school. "We are proud that Grand Bahama has some 15 students going to camp which means that the schools are doing a phenomenal job here," he said. The students were briefed at YMCA about the camp.