“Where’s BOB? Who’s BOB?” signs were posted around the community.
BOB, a Battle of the Bands, was held Saturday at the Brandywine Heights High School.
The Brandywine Heights Community Task Force and Kutztown Strong teamed to engage students in activities in an effort to battle substance abuse.
The 11 bands that battled it out for a prize of $350 had as much diversity in music as in age. Once the competition was over, Hannah Violet Trio and Junior’s Grades provided entertainment.
“This event was really spurred from our Community Task Force really trying to engage the community, make awareness, give the community an activity to be involved in; it’s for all ages,” said Brandywine Heights Superintendent Andrew Potteiger.
Potteiger said this event generated excitement back in March. They wanted to create an activity for the whole community to be involved in to bring awareness of what the Task Force was about, the drug and alcohol awareness, but it was also about the other part of the mission from the Community Task Force to give activities for the community to do so they are engaged, students have something to do and they’re not going down negative paths.
With a huge smile, Potteiger said, “We’ve been publicizing it for the last couple of weeks. Where’s BOB signs are up and Who’s BOB? BOB is Battle of the Bands.”
Potteiger said they had students helping the night before, students who were playing, and students who were there during the event to help or enjoy the music.
“All those different factors are pulling from different groups or sections of students; the populace. Even the kids that were practicing here last night, I talked to the girls after leaving practice, you guys coming? We have kids that were engaged in sports that I talked to them and they’re coming. Kids that are in bands and they’re bringing their friends. Kids that are involved in Scouts and like to do handy stuff they’re involved in helping set up so it’s a cross-section of all these different groups of kids involved in this event,” said Potteiger. “And that’s besides just coming and hanging out.”
After a community meeting of 600 people to address the problem of heroin in the district, the Brandywine Heights Community Task Force was formed with three sub-groups, Education, Engagement, and Outreach, as a specific focus.
Kutztown had also experienced a problem with heroin in its borough and had formed Kutztown Strong, Strengthening The Resolve of the Next Generation. Kutztown Strong’s mission is to combat substance abuse for the well-being of the Kutztown community.
Kutztown Strong has three groups that work with the students on the elementary, middle school, and high school level, which are all part of the education group and community activities group. Volunteers overlap between the action groups to work together for the single cause of combating substance abuse in their area.
Prudence Miller, Brandywine Heights Community Task Force, said the Task Force decided to work with Kutztown Strong because a lot of the kids know each other in the community.
“The education and the engagement were two big things the community wanted to see. They wanted to see stuff done for the community and the kids at the same time more education in the school,” said Miller. “Eight months ago, Kerry Meitzler came up with this idea, let’s do a battle of the bands. We were all like is it possible and here we are months later and it’s going off without a hitch.”
“Battle of the Bands is a great venue for our students to attend and have a great time,” said Melissa Nolte of Kutztown Strong. “Kutztown Strong is blessed to have a wonderful Brandywine Task Force to bounce ideas and learn things from.”
“It means a lot to me because this is our community,” said Jacob Moyer, recent graduate from Brandywine. “It helps to keep the drugs minimized or out of our area and helps get people involved in our community as one whole at a social gathering event. It’s kind of a good thing; I wish we had more of them.”
Gillian Schmeck, 16, said it really means a lot having an event like BOB because they are all trying to get together as a community to get rid of problems.
“I just think that it’s something really good like trying new things just trying to get everyone to come out, get together and have a good time,” said Schmeck.
“We have a big drug problem in our high school so I think it’s good that they’re doing something about it,” said Caleb Moyer, 10.
Potteiger said for an educational aspect, they have the District Attorney’s office from Berks County coming out to the Meet the Teacher night for the high school and middle school and set up a mock bedroom with hidden drug paraphernalia. The parents have to go in and try to figure out, as an educational awareness piece, where kids would hide drugs as well as warning signs to look for. The high school Meet the Teacher night is Sept. 2 and the middle school Meet the Teacher night is Sept. 9.
“We did it last year; it’s awesome,” said Potteiger. “They take a Coke can and it looks exactly like a regular Coke can except the bottom of it comes out. They have water bottles that the water bottles come apart and so it’s filled with water at the top and bottom and where the label is the drugs are hidden in the label so you can’t see it,”
Potteiger said they give you warning signs to look for such as spoons that are a little bit burnt or missing. These tips for parents seem like normal things you would find in your bedroom that are actually warning signs that could be an issue.
Brandywine has at least one teacher from each grade kindergarten to fifth that are going to be piloting a social awareness and drug program with help from Jaclyn Steed, prevention program manager with Council on Chemical Abuse and volunteer Task Force member in charge of the education group. Once they see how it works with the current curriculum, they will roll it out for all grades for next year if it’s successful.
“This is going to help because not only do we want to educate, but we want to provide some drug-free events for our families and for our community so we can get them out here, get them to have a sense of community, and then tell them of things we have coming up,” said Steed.
Steed said they have Brandywine Red Ribbon Week coming up at the end of October and then the Red Ribbon Run at the beginning of November.
Steed said the biggest challenge working with Brandywine was getting community members committed to the cause.
“They’re all very passionate. We had our first meeting where we had 600 people come out for the meeting and people came out for many reasons and we just need to get that momentum back and keep that going,” said Steed. “We’re looking at other drug-free events as well as education events.”
“They [students] know that the community is doing something to help them,” said Audrey Tucker, fifth grade Brandywine teacher. “It’s making a difference.”
Nolte, Kutztown Strong, said students run their programs. They have had pool parties, dodge ball tournaments, Capture the Flag in the park in an effort to take back Kutztown Park.
“A lot of the times, Kutztown Strong meetings have also been held in the park during summer months, which has been great so our presence is there,” said Nolte. “We’re just trying to combat this substance abuse within our area and get the kids off the streets and give them a happy, healthy, safe place to have fun.”
Something fun will be booked for every half day in the high school. New members are welcome to join in the fun. Nolte added that the next collaborative event between the Brandywine Heights Community Task Force and Kutztown Strong is a Dine-in Fundraiser.
“It’s utilizing in-town all the businesses that have given back to us,” said Nolte.
To learn more about Kutztown Strong, go to www.kutztownstrong.com or email at kutztownstrong@gmail.com. The next meeting is Sept. 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Kutztown High School Library.
To learn more about Brandywine’s Task Force go to http://bhctaskforce.org or on Facebook at bhctaskforce. The next BHC Tack Force meeting is Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Brandywine Middle School Library.