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UMADAOP of Lucas County Fundraiser
By Carla Yvette
A fundraiser for UMADAOP
of Lucas County took place at the Beirut Restaurant on
February 26 to support the organization’s drug free and
violence prevention youth programs.
John Edwards, executive
director, said this is one of the soft fundraisers they have
each year to help support some of the initiatives that are
currently going on. UMADAOP, which stands for the Urban
Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program,
provides age appropriate, gender-specific and culturally
relevant after-school, evening and weekend activities
designed to promote and enhance developmental assets that
help young people make positive and healthy choices to
increase abstinence from alcohol and illicit drugs.
Other program activities
are designed to increase youth awareness and provide
education to avoid violence, delinquency, school failure,
gang involvement, family alienation and teen pregnancy.
Edwards says they are
currently in the process of opening two women's recovery
houses and also raising funds to take 30 teen-aged boys on
an Amtrak trip to California this summer. The initiative
labeled, ‘Surf and Turf’ is for youth who might not
otherwise have the opportunity to go on family vacations or
who may not have been outside the proximity of their
immediate neighborhoods.
“We feel that such a trip
will enable them to expand their vision, encourage them to
succeed and achieve success and to avoid gangs and other
related problems,” he said.
Edwards who has been with
the program for 35 years said their goal for this fundraiser
was to raise $5,000.
For more information about
UMADAOP of Lucas County, please visit
www.umadaops.com.
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