Waldo Pafford Elementary School celebrated the end of Red Ribbon Week by having the students dress up and parade around as storybook characters.

Red Ribbon Week serves as a catalyst to mobilize communities to educate their youth and encourage participation in drug prevention activities, according to redribbon.org. The Red Ribbon Campaign is the oldest and largest drug prevention program in the nation, reaching millions of young people during RRW (Oct. 23-31) each year, the website continued.

An estimated 80 million people participate in RRW activities each year, and 2018’s RRW theme was “Life is Your Journey. Travel Drug Free.”

WPE made the parade about avoiding drugs and bullying, in an effort to raise awareness and promote a kindness campaign among the students in the school.

Guest speaker Joseph Grant, a local State Farm agent, emphasized to students before the parade to spread kindness to everyone.

“We’re starting a kindness revolution,” Grant said. “Encourage one another to be kind, and say no to bullying, say no to drugs. Listen to your parents, teachers, faculty, and administrators. Be kind to one another.”

Children’s costumes represented a wide range of characters, from ninja turtles to transformers, princesses, Egyptians, animals, even skeletons. Parents were invited to come watch the students’ parade behind the school on Oct. 31.

“Give yourselves a hand for all the great work you’ve done,” Liberty County School System’s Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Susan Avant said. “We’re proud of everything you do every day, so keep up the good work!”