Next July, thousands of schoolchildren will be getting a message from Allison McMillan.
The message will be repeated every day for 31 days, and if they "really get it," it could save their lives.And to make sure they get it, McMillan has drawn them a picture. It shows a cracked skull puffing on a reefer along with the warning: "Think About It . . . While You Still Can."
McMillan's drawing was selected from among hundreds of entries to be the July page in the Salt Lake County attorney's 1995 anti-drug poster calendar.
More than 20,000 copies of the calendar will be distributed to classrooms throughout the state, which means it will probably be seen by more people than any other calendar in Utah.
An eighth-grader at Eastmont Middle School, McMillan said while she's thrilled at the prospect of having her artwork viewed by so many people, it's the message that counts.
"I hope kids will look at the calendar and think about what they're doing," she said.
McMillan believes the calendar will have an impact because kids are more likely to pay attention when it's their peers who are telling them "it's not cool to do drugs."
Adults are viewed as being too preachy, she said.
Salt Lake County Attorney David Yocom agrees, saying, "We've touched a lot of kids with these calendars."
Yocom started the anti-drug poster and calendar contest four years ago, funding the project with assets seized from drug pushers.
The calendar has become so popular that the county has a difficult time keeping up with demand.
The 13-year-old McMillan said she entered the contest as an extra-credit art project rather than to make a social statement.
But then she started thinking about drugs and realized how pervasive and dangerous they had become.
"Drugs are not a big problem at Eastmont, but I know kids who use them and I know they are definitely dangerous," McMillan said.
Many of her classmates share that view. In fact, of the 13 posters selected for the 1995 calendar, five came from Eastmont.
"We have some very talented students," McMillan said.
In addition to McMillan, the poster award winners are:
Jordan Brough, Hillside Intermediate School; Noah Geesaman, Eastmont; Mark Doyle, Eastmont.
James Lankford, Midvale Middle School; Chris Bodily, Eastmont; Tom Loveless, Hunter Junior High School; Tom Bowler, Midvale.
Dominic Tartaro, J.E. Cosgriff Memorial School; Vincent Fitches, Hillside.
Shane Fox, Eastmont; Kali Mellus, Christ Lutheran School; and Bethany Robison, Clayton Intermediate School.