Before John Stephens started his freshman year at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, he made a decision about the lifestyle he would embrace as a high school student.
When he was an 8th grader at Hill Middle School in Naperville, a teen troupe called REACH (Responsible, Educated Adolescents Can Help) visited Hill to perform skits about making good choices and staying away from drugs and alcohol. Stephens liked what he saw.
“I already knew a lot of people in REACH from my neighborhood, and they were people I looked up to,” said Stephens of Naperville. “I thought the skits were powerful. A lot of people think that everyone in high school drinks and does drugs, and this showed there were people who didn’t do that. I identified with that and wanted to be a member.”
Stephens, 17, has been more than just a member. When he begins his senior year at Waubonsie Valley in the fall, he will be REACH’s new president. He was its vice president last year.
One of the group’s new vice presidents, Crissy Catalano, also was exposed to REACH as an 8th grader. She attended Madison Junior High School in Naperville and recalled that the skits she saw “were funny but also pretty serious. They showed you can have fun in high school and not do drugs or drink.”
Leaders plan changes
Catalano and Stephens are joining this year to bring changes to REACH, an organization begun in 1986 with 14 students. REACH grew to about 400 students a decade ago and now has roughly 125 members from Naperville Central, Naperville North and Neuqua Valley High Schools in Naperville, along with Waubonsie Valley. REACH is sponsored by Camp Fire USA Illinois Prairie Council.
The program’s emphasis is on drug- and alcohol-abuse education and prevention, using skits to spread its message to middle schoolers. But the organization also participates in several community service projects each year and provides a positive peer group for its members. Each REACH member signs a pledge to remain drug- and alcohol-free.
That pledge turns some students away from REACH, said Catalano, who will be a senior at Naperville Central. “A lot of kids don’t think it’s cool to say, `I’m not doing drugs,'” she said. “In class sometimes kids will be saying, `Yeah, I got high this weekend. It’s so cool.’ Other people might be drug-free, but they don’t want to say so.
“It’s not hard for me because so many of my friends are in REACH. You know you have people who are like you.”
Communication tops agenda
Stephens and Catalano hope to improve the group’s internal and external communications this year. One step toward that goal began in January when Stephens helped update the group’s publications.
“John took a leadership role when we needed students to step up,” said Joe Haines, executive director of the Camp Fire USA Illinois Prairie Council, who is on the adult board that works with REACH’s youth board. “He took our public relations materials, talked to other students about them, and worked with other students to make changes and updates.
“He’s a strong leader who’s well respected by his peers, and he’s good at thinking things through.”
Stephens and Catalano also want to improve communications among REACH members, so the four-person REACH executive board (a president, two vice presidents and a secretary) is planning a mentoring program for freshmen. At the beginning of the school year, juniors and seniors will be matched with freshman REACH members. The older students will call the freshmen before meetings and special events, offering rides and information. At the meetings they will introduce them to others and make them feel comfortable.
Duck race draws funds
REACH receives a few donations each year but gets most of its financial support from its spring Duck Race, carnival and pet parade along the Riverwalk in Naperville. Participants in the Duck Race pay $5 per plastic duck. The ducks are numbered, and the person with the number of the first one through the chute on the DuPage River wins the $1,000 top prize.
Some of that money is used to buy Christmas presents for pupils at Rollins Elementary School in Aurora. Each year REACH holds a Christmas party and every pupil receives a gift.
REACH participates in several other service projects each year, and Catalano is usually there.
“She’s very active in all of the community service we do,” Haines said. “Crissy has an outgoing personality and is passionate about being drug-free.”
At the end of each school year, REACH holds a Final Fling party for the outgoing seniors. Some seniors are awarded small college scholarships, and there’s a slide show of the year’s big events. When a social committee fell behind in planning for the Final Fling last school year, Catalano took charge.
“She took a leadership role when we needed someone to step up,” Haines said. “She coordinated the food and worked with the parent board in sending out invitations.”
REACH members serve on committees, including the performers committee that goes to the junior highs. Parent volunteers bring the sound and stage equipment, and the performers are excused from school for about two hours several times in February and March to perform the skits. Catalano and Stephens say performing is their favorite REACH activity.
Skits connect with kids
“You can see the reactions on their faces and see you’re doing something for the community,” said Catalano, who is considering a career in teaching. “Some of the kids are giggling and snickering, but others react positively. As long as I know I’m touching one kid’s life and making them think about these things, it’s worthwhile.”
This summer the group is updating some of its skits. It has added a skit about date-rape drugs and Ecstasy because they are becoming more prevalent among teens.
The skits help the performers as well as the audience because the performers become better public speakers, said Carla Stephens, John’s mother, who is president of the parent board.
“I think John’s performance skills–and by that I mean public speaking skills–have improved a tremendous amount,” she said.
“What kids get out of it is the ability to hold a microphone and be poised, but we aren’t training them to be actors. Some of the kids, though, have enjoyed it so much that they have gone into acting. But the real joy is to watch a shy, kind of scared kid get up and take the microphone and transform over the year into someone who can speak” in public.
In past years, another of Catalano’s extracurricular activities has been playing clarinet in the Naperville Central marching band. Carpal tunnel syndrome will prevent her from playing this year, but she plans to help with band activities.
Stephens plays soccer for the Waubonsie Valley team that finished third in the state tournament last school year. He also participates in Business Professionals of America competitions, placing second in interview skills and third in impromptu speaking in the state competition last school year.
One of his goals for REACH in his final high school year is to leave a vibrant group in place when he moves on to college, he said.
“I think we took on too many things last year and burned out some of our members,” he said. “I don’t want us to take on as much this year. We need to concentrate on doing things that will really help the community.”
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John Stephens
Age: 17.
School: Senior at Waubonsie Valley High School, Aurora.
Position: President of REACH.
Favorite REACH activity: Going to the middle schools to perform and talk to the pupils.
Favorite book: “The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk,” by Jennifer Niven. Stephens enjoys reading historical non-fiction such as this book about a Canadian Arctic expedition that claimed 16 lives when a ship and its crew got caught in icy waters.
Hobbies: Playing soccer year-round and fishing.
Biggest challenge for REACH: “The biggest challenge is improving communication. We need to communicate better with our members to get them involved in all the activities, and we need to communicate better with people out in the community to let people know who we are and what we’re doing.”
Future plans: Attend college and study business or engineering.
