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Teens Get White House Praise For Battling Substance Abuse
Kansas City News; Wednesday, 13 Feb 2008

Phil Witt, Fox 4 News

Two Northland high school students who are working hard to make the world drug free for kids got a major boost of encouragement to keep up their efforts. Mallory Hamilton, a junior at Liberty High and Paige Yates, a sophomore at Smithville High got invited to the White House for a big thank you from President Bush. Mallory and Paige are the Fox 4 young achievers of the week.

Whenever and wherever people gather in the metro area for campaigns and projects to turn the tide of kids using tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs you're likely to find Mallory Hamilton and Paige Yates.

I want to let them know that it's not a cool thing to do and how unhealthy and how wrong it is, says Paige, Education Chair for Youth With Vision, a group of local high school students focused on substance abuse prevention.

Paige and Mallory may be young, not even seniors in high school yet, but they are already veteran champions in the battle against the culture of substance abuse in schools and communities.

I just want to get across the message that you can make a difference even though you may be a young teenager, says Mallory, Special Events and Public Relations Chair for Youth With Vision.

The girls are making a big difference as strong leaders in substance abuse prevention groups like Youth With Vision and The Northland Coalition. They've had extraordinary access to adult decision-makers at the state and local level to push legislation and public policy. And recently they got to the top decision-maker -- the President himself.

It was really exciting, says Paige of the opportunity to meet President Bush. It was life changing. Who gets to do that when they're a sophomore in high school? When the White House came calling on The Northland Coalition to send representatives to Washington, DC in December for the release of new research showing a major decline in substance abuse by teens, The Northland Coalition sent Paige and Mallory.

They really know the ups and downs and all-arounds of our priority issues that are going on, says Ryan McElhaney of Tri-County Mental Health which is a lead agency in The Northland Coalition and sponsors Youth With Vision. That's why we sent them.

Mallory got to sit in with a handful of teens in a personal meeting with President Bush about youth-led projects that are successfully changing teen behaviors and attitudes about drugs and alcohol.

I just wanted to show him that youth are also ones that care about this, says Mallory. It's not just adults trying to preach on kids.

Getting the ear of the President and learning they are making a difference -- powerful motivation for these Northland teens to continue the battle for a drug free world for kids.

It's good that there's a change starting to happen and that our representatives and our President recognize us for it, says Paige. Because we've put a lot of hard work into it.

Knowing that other people care, knowing that we are being recognized for our work and that other people support us in our fight, it's just given us all the more reason to keep on fighting, says Mallory.