"Best of America Say No!" is the Golden Key National Honor Society's message to high school students.

Members of the honor society, along with student-athletes and educators from the Total Alcohol Awareness Program and Drug Education Program for Total Health, will present a program about substance abuse and other misdemeanors to Penns Valley High School, Bald Eagle Area High School, Easterly Parkway Elementary, and Park Forest Elementary tomorrow, said Tara Reed, president of the University's Golden Key chapter.

"We care. Drugs and alcohol are a problem and we want the kids to stay out of trouble," Reed said. "The program is a role-playing, active thing, since we didn't want to preach. We teach the kids to think through situations and come up with something else to do, to say 'I have a better idea,' " she said.

"We teach them not to say 'sure' to things like painting the pillars of Old Main purple," she added.

The program, which was initiated by Golden Key's Florida State University chapter in 1988, was implemented nationally this year, Reed said.

"We teach the kids refusal skills for sticky situations," said Tracy Swartz, a Golden Key member who organized of the program. When faced with pressure to participate in illegal activity such as drugs, vandalism or theft, students should take time to stop and consider possible ramifications, said Swartz.

She said Golden Key suggests that when they encounter a difficult situation, the students should: ask questions about the situation, such as when, where, and do we have permission to do this?; recall the real name for the kind of trouble involved, for example, retail theft; consider what might happen with parents or police if caught; think of alternatives or distractions, such as a movie or football; and take responsibility to walk away from the situation and invite your friend to go.

Golden Key is a non-profit academic honor society which requires a 3.4 grade-point average going into junior or senior year, Reed said. "Many of our activities are community oriented," she said, adding, "We've gotten a lot from society and we want to share it."

"The success of the program depends on how you define success," Swartz said. "It could be in hundreds of kids or just one kid saying no.

"I think it's a really good program. I'm glad I'm involved in it because I'm going into drug rehabilitation as my career," she added.

Thirty to 40 of the University's Golden Key members and athletes will reach more than 1,300 kids through the program, Swartz said.

"It was really successful last year, and it's fun," Reed said. "We got something out of it, as did the kids."