Bryan's Smile Reality Tour
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Bryan’s Smile is proud to sponsor CANDLE, Inc. Reality Tour; a parent and child drug prevention program. The program engages both parents and children together as they go through the interactive experience portraying the consequences of drug addiction.
Participants will follow the fate of a fictitious teen addicted to drugs. The Tour includes several dramatic scenes, a discussion by a CHP officer trained in drug recognition, talks from young adults who are in recovery, and discussions between parent and child about the different drugs that are in our communities. A narrative by the “addict’ precedes each scene and includes the constant reminder to the audience that, “I’m just like you.” In addition, we share our family's own experience.
Each attendee will be given a drug abuse profile to adopt during the program, so that participants can become familiar with different addictive drugs as well as gateway drugs. Participants will have an opportunity to hear from a parent of or an addict in recovery at the end of the program. Attendees can commit to a drug-free life by tracing their handprint on the Reality Tour® Banner.
Bryan’s Smile believes that the best way to end substance abuse is to prevent it. The program opens the lines of communication on the subject and gives families the tools needed to reduce the risk of substance abuse.
The tour is recommended for children age 10 to 17 who must be accompanied by their parent or guardian. Advance registration is necessary, as space is limited. For information on the nation-wide Reality Tour visit: https://candleinc.org/
For registration visit the Bryan's Smile Reality Tour Registration Page.
UPDATE FROM 2014-2018 SCHOOL YEARS:
Bryan's Smile has now put on over a dozen Reality Tours since we started back in 2014. We have moved venues, but we continue to spread the word about drug addiction. We have reached hundreds of adults and youths over the past five years and have had countless people provide feedback that we have increased the dialogue in their home about drug awareness. Our goal is to help keep other families from going through what our family did and give the youth in our community the knowledge to recognize drugs and make wise choices if offered drugs or alcohol.
Many people believe that their communities are immune to the effects of drug addiction, but after reading through several of the adult and child exit surveys, which are questionnaires filled out by each attendee, it is apparent that those people are mistaken. One child wrote that s/he has made it a goal to stop doing "bad things" and to help her/his friends "get out of drugs." It is great to see that our message is being received, but we hope to continue to grow the program so that the message can be seen by many more. Lastly, we created a scholarship that is awarded to a college-bound senior who volunteers in our program and shows dedication to helping fellow youths make smart decisions.
The Reality Tour is a national project of the nonprofit CANDLE, Inc.