Living a drug-free life can bring so many benefits, and to celebrate this, many schools participate in Red Ribbon Week. The National Family Partnership, formerly the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth, was started in 1980 by a group of parents determined to take a leadership role in drug prevention. They started promoting Red Ribbon Weeks in 1988 as a way to call communities to action and encourage families to educate their children on the impact of drugs. These days, Red Ribbon Week is typically celebrated within the last two weeks of the month of October. Rosary celebrated Red Ribbon Week this past week with four fun spirit dress days for Royals to participate in. Here’s everything that you need to know about Rosary’s celebration of life without drugs.
Monday’s comfy theme, “Wake Up Drug Free,” was very popular with Rosary students. Royals got the opportunity to wear their favorite pajama bottoms, sweatpants and comfy clothes to school. Wearing their coziest outfits helped Royals to focus and learn in comfort and inspired all students to strive to wake up every day making the choice to stay drug-free. Elizabeth Braatz ‘27 loved wearing pajamas to school, saying, “I loved wearing pajamas to school because it made me feel cozy and comfortable all day. Wearing comfy clothes at school definitely made me focus better!” I think that all Royals would agree that Monday was the best day ever due to the pajama and half-day combo.
Royals got to embrace their inner soldier by dressing up to Tuesday’s “Bad Choices Can’t Find Me” theme. Students who dressed up were decked out in camo, hiding and staying away from the ultimate enemy: drugs. These Royals really answered the call to dress up, wearing camo pants, camo leggings, camo sweatshirts and even camo vests. All students were very well prepared for the battle against drugs.
On Wednesday, Royals sported red in honor of the Red Ribbon, which stands for drug awareness, for the theme “We Are REaDy to Make Healthy Choices.” This theme fits right into Rosary culture, as red happens to be one of our school colors. It was fun to see all of the Royals celebrating Red Ribbon Week and drug awareness by simply wearing red.
Because Red Ribbon Week coincided with Halloween this year, Royals got to dress up to Thursday’s theme, “Say BOO to Bad Choices,” by wearing their Halloween costumes. Halloween at Rosary is a day that everyone looks forward to because Royals have the opportunity to show off their awesome costumes that they worked so hard on to all of their friends and teachers. There were many different costumes around campus, ranging from “Dumb and Dumber” to “Winnie the Pooh” and even to Disney “Fairies.” Just like the camo day, Royals were able to hide from drugs and bad choices by disguising themselves in creative costumes.
Red Ribbon Week 2025 was very successful and was a very impactful experience for many Royals. Sophomore Kitana Canent found Red Ribbon Week to be very meaningful and a very informative experience: “Red Ribbon Week has been amazing so far! I love how we were able to wear comfy and cozy pajamas. Each day’s theme has been fun to participate in, and they have reminded me to stay away from drugs and to stay healthy. For example, there are so many posters around campus and in the bathrooms that inform me about the dangers of drugs.”
A half-day on Monday, no school on Friday and spirit dress all week: could there be a better way to celebrate living healthy lives drug-free?
