Fifth-grader Cassandra Corke receives her diploma from D.A.R.E. Officer David Secor during Holley Elementary's D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony.

Holley Elementary School recently held its Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E.) graduation ceremony during which 116 fifth-graders vowed to stay drug free. The Holley Police Department sponsors the program and Officer David Sevor has been working with the students all year studying the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol, the legal ramifications of being caught using or carrying drugs, and more positive topics, such as building self-esteem. As part of the program, students wrote essays about what the D.A.R.E. program has meant to them. Winning essays were picked from each classroom, then an overall winner was chosen. Melanie Gemerek's essay was the overall winner, which she read at the graduation ceremony. "Nothing good ever comes from doing drugs," she wrote.