ELKS DRUG AWARENESS PROGRAM'S HERNDOBLER SUPPORTS DRUG WAR BOND ACT.

SUMMARY:

Mr. Chairman, my name is Dick Herndobler. From my home in Ashland, Oregon, I serve as national director of the Elks Drug Awareness Program. I am a volunteer, and I attempt to coordinate the efforts of our 50 state chairmen and more than 2,200 local chairmen who have volunteered to direct drug awareness programs in their local communities.

With 1.5 million members, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks -- the BPOE -- is the nation's largest fraternal group. There are Elks in all 50 states, and we have a strong national commitment to fighting the war on drugs. Drugs are a national problem, and additional government funds are needed. But we know that this war will ultimately be won by battles that are fought one by one at the local level, in neighborhoods and communities throughout the country.

This is the way the Elks Drug Awareness Program is structured. Our national foundation contributes seed money, but it is up to our local chapters -- our lodges -- to determine the needs in their home towns and to raise money to support various drug awareness programs.

We share ideas. Our lodges are instructed to support fully any existing community program in drug-use prevention. If no program exists, the lodge is to be a catalyst to help that community start an effective prevention/education effort.

We have discovered that when people get involved personally in something, they show more concern. They get their neighbors involved. They get local businesses to join in. This proposed program of savings bonds as a new way to help finance the war on drugs will provide an excellent and visible forum for such involvement.

In many communities, the Elks lodge serves as a meeting place for many groups that share concerns about drugs. We pitch in and support groups such as the Red Ribbon Campaign, PRIDE, the DARE program and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. We work with the National Parent-Teachers Association, the National Crime Prevention Coalition, the National Federation of Parents and the Just Say No Foundation. In hundreds of cities and towns, Elks join with service organizations and civic clubs in support of community efforts in this continuing war.

In Bennington, Vt., the Elks lodge teamed with the Lions Club to run drug awareness booths at weekend home shows attended by over 2,000 people. In Blackfoot, Idaho, the Elks printed crisis number cards for high school students. In Portland, Oregon, the Gateway Elks Lodge funds "listen" programs in the schools. In California, lodges sponsor "You Can't Fly High," a 30-minute live fly-in program with helicopters, SWAT teams and celebrities delivering an anti-drug message that really impresses the kids.

And we supplement government efforts as well. In dozens of communities, the Elks fund 24-hour automated hot lines for alcohol and drug information services. In Marietta, Ga., the Elks lodge raised $5,000 to purchase a drug dog for the local police department. The lodge in Madisonville, Ky., pays for a drug counselor training program for teachers. We recently answered the call of the Drug Enforcement Agency to help fund a demand reduction program at the Turner Elementary School here in Washington, D.C.

In Charleston, S.C., 3,000 students attended a "Just Say No" rally sponsored by the Elks. In Rhode Island, lodges brought juvenile officers to the schools to talk with students. The Opelika, Ala., Elks arranged for the display of anti-drug messages at the nationally televised Auburn-Florida football game.

Throughout the country, lodges sponsor information programs and anti-drug events, and Elks distribute millions of bumper stickers, comic books and other pieces of literature detailing the dangers of drugs. As important as these activities are, however, we realize that you cannot just go about your business after telling a young person to "Just Say No." Even when kids accept the message that alcohol and tobacco and other drugs are harmful, they are still going to need constructive alternative activities.

For this reason, many of our members are making facilities available and volunteering to be cooks and chaperons and helping out in other ways with dances and parties at the Elks Lodge -- events that are free of drugs and alcohol. Five high schools around Mount Vernon, Wash., use the Elks lodge for dances that are formulated, run and policed by youth staff. In Nashua, N.H., a local D.J. provides the music for substance-free teen dances that have attracted over 1,200 young people to the Elks Lodge there. Local merchants sponsor radio broadcasts of the events and reach countless other students and families.

We try to involve young people in many of our ongoing lodge volunteer activities such as helping out at soup kitchens or in collecting hides for the VA hospitals to use in their craft and therapy work with patients. In Florida, many lodges sponsor fishing contests, encouraging youngsters to get hooked on fishing, not drugs.

Elks lodges are one of the largest sponsors of scouting; we have 2,500 Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops nationwide. We sponsor 6,503 athletic teams. We volunteer as coaches and counselors. We sponsor bands and teen centers and summer camps. We conduct essay contests and poster contests. Last year we awarded more than $3 million in college and vocational scholarships.

A single program -- the Elks "Hoop Shoot" -- involves more than three and one-half million boys and girls. These youngsters do a lot of practicing as they try to make 25 free throws in 25 attempts. Their ages are 8 to 13, and that's the age group we try to target with our Drug Awareness Program.

We think a "Drug War Bond" would be an especially attractive addition to the many activities that our Elks lodges have underway. BPOE members will buy bonds and promote the sale to their neighbors. Buying bonds would be a great project for young people, and a way to make everyone feel that he or she is directly involved in this effort.

In addition, these proposed savings bonds for the war on drugs would complement many of the Elks' on-going activities.

What would be a better prize for the winner of an essay contest or a poster contest than a Drug War Bond?

Why not give a Drug War Bond to the outstanding camper? To the youngster chosen as the team's (or the school's) outstanding athlete? The kid with the best grades? The best all-around student? The winners of our Hoop Shoot contests?

A continuing program that promotes Drug War Bonds would provide a constant reminder to our young people that the nation is investing its resources in fighting this war.

An appeal to patriotism was a major reason the sale of war bonds proved so successful in the '40s. One of the common threads that you can find running through the fabric of every Elks lodge is the members' special love for their country. Elks take a special pride in promoting patriotic causes.

We sponsor parades on the Fourth of July. We enlist community support for civic endeavors. We honor our veterans, and we do not forget those who are patients in our VA hospitals. We recognize our policemen and firemen and school teachers and other public servants whose contributions toward improving the quality of life are oftentimes overlooked.

We fly the flag, and we encourage stores and businesses to fly the flag on holidays and special occasions. In fact, the BPOE came up with the idea of a day to honor the flag, and President Harry Truman, a member of an Elks lodge in Missouri, issued a proclamation designating June 14 for such an observance.

Every New Year's Day at the Rose Parade in Pasadena, the Elks sponsor a float. Our entry usually has red, white and blue flowers, and the theme often reflects freedom and patriotism. recent years, we have featured the Statue of Liberty, the Iwo Jima Memorial, Yankee Doodle and the Stars and Stripes.

A few years ago, when the call came for help in restoring the Statue of Liberty, the Elks raised $1.5 million. We had raffles and bake sales, but there were more imaginative fund-raising ideas as well. In New Jersey, retarded children at an Elks-sponsored center for handicapped children fashioned pins of "the lady with her light". Those kids took great pride in knowing that the sale of their pins helped that beautiful symbol to once more stand tall and proud.

That's the sort of creative thinking you're going to see when the Elks are asked to buy Drug War Bonds, because we've got a lot of dedicated members and this is one war that every American wants to win.

For almost eight years, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has been promoting drug awareness among our young people, their parents and their neighbors. Last year we spent more than $10 million and volunteered almost one million hours on youth and drug awareness programs.

We welcome the prospect of this new savings bond program as a way to increase drug awareness, to get more people involved in this worthwhile effort and to provide new resources for fighting the war on drugs.

                             Attachment