SMAC hosts the voice of 'The Big Boy'

SIDNEY -- Choices and integrity highlighted Hunter Arterburn's talk to the SMAC students at West Elementary School Monday.  

Arterburn talked about what to do when faced with a decision you know is wrong. He was invited to be a guest speaker in the SMAC, Students Making Awesome Choices, speaker series.   

"Raise your hand if you've been pressured to do something you knew wasn't right. Be honest. It's honesty time. No one is going to judge you. No one's going to judge you, ok? No one's going to judge you. And it's a good thing you're raising your hand because that is normal," Arterburn said to an auditorium of students Monday.  

He said the challenge, the sign of maturity, is what you do with that choice.  

"Peer pressure doesn't have to be just drugs and alcohol, by the way, which is a lot of what you're about to hear in SMAC. That could be anything from going out and graffitiing the park. Who would want to do that? Don't do that. Trust me. If you guys end up in the news, then I have to report about that. And we don't need to do that," he said. 

He added a negative news story that can stain a person's record online permanently. He also stressed that it is normal to face those decisions. 

He encouraged students to know the right answer when offered drugs or alcohol: The wrong choice can be life changing. 

"Unfortunately, I see it in a lot of different ways; on the news side, we see families, friends torn apart, by bad decisions made, especially when it comes to drugs. We see that on the news side. I see it every day. I see it almost every single day. We get some kind of call," he said. 

West Elementary School Counselor Julie Smith, said the SMAC program evolved from the DARE program. 

"So the SMAC program has been here for several years. Curtis Hofrock and Carla Brower started it 15 years ago just to increase student awareness of drug education and that type of thing, and so this year we still have SMAC. It stands for Students Making Awesome Choices. We've tweaked it a little bit this year. We're focusing on the drug awareness piece, but we're also adding in presenters to come in and talk to our six-graders about like leadership and positive choices and just being a good, a good human, and having goals that will help them succeed in life," Smith said. 

They have eight different speakers addressing a variety of topics that began this month, she said. 

“At the conclusion of this course, the six graders will create an essay about what they’ve learned throughout, and so they’ll present that to their class, and it’s voted on, and then we’ll have a SMAC graduation,” she said.