Grunthal Lions Club distributing drug safety books to students

The Grunthal Lions Club will distribute around 80 drug awareness books to South Oaks Elementary School in the fall.

The 100-page book about drug safety is designed to educate kids and parents on risks of substance abuse, which Doug Wiens said is a growing problem.

“We have a serious crystal meth problem, as well as other problems with fentanyl and things like that,” said Doug Wiens, club president of Grunthal Lions Club.

The book will be given to those around Grade 4.

“Theres an awful lot of homeless people and those homeless people are people who have gotten on drugs and can’t break the cycle. If we can get kids the information that they can avoid making that choice, then hopefully they won’t end up like these other people—or they shouldn’t,” he said.

Community Safety Net is an education and safety awareness initiative focused on children with lesson plans for fire and health safety.

“I think every child should be street smart because there’s so much more than just drugs getting around to kids. The access they have is so much easier now. These drug dealers sometimes show up at schools, and they try to tempt kids into buying or taking drugs. Sometimes they even use kids around their peer’s age to encourage drugs to be sold,” said Joan Vanderzalm, safety coordinator at Community Safety Net.

Vanderzalm reaches people over the phone, email, or in-person to collect donations. She says $16 is needed to cover print and publishing costs of each book.