The Bulldog Pit was filled with 1,500 screaming elementary school students from Artesia and Penasco Thursday for the third annual No Drugs, No Gangs, Drink More Milk Program that featured Olympic champion Dominique Dawes.
Sponsored by the local dairy industry and the Artesia Chamber of Commerce, the event is one of the highlights of the school year for elementary students.
Dawes is a three-time Olympian on the U.S. Women's gymnastic team, who won a gold medal with her team in the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta.
The program began with the presentation of the annual poster contest awards to Central's Mark Brindeiro, Hermosa's Paige Houghtaling, Roselawn's Pamlina Reyes, Yeso's Kimberly Richardson and Yucca's Megan Leyva. The awards were presented by PVT's Phil Burch and Sharon Siegenthaler.
Dawes spoke to the students about the fact that they are tomorrow's leaders and the importance of setting goals in their lives.
She told them of her D-3 formula (Determination, Dedication and Desire) that she said helped her through the tough times on her way to Olympic fame.
"I learned that discipline makes you a stronger person," said Dawes. "You can be a quitter and give up, or you can accept the challenges and move on."
Dawes stressed to the students to dream big and be willing to work hard for what they want out of life.
"My coach used to tell me that success is a journey, not a destination," said Dawes. "There will be times when things get tough, and you may want to quit, but you have to work hard."
In keeping with the theme of the program, Dawes also spoke to the children about the ongoing violence problems in schools, the importance of being drug free and the importance of drinking more milk.
The Dairy Olympics was next on the list and Dawes was able to experience the competitive nature of Artesians, even the young ones.
The Dairy Olympics began with the milk drinking contest, which was won by the Roselawn Roadrunners. It was followed by the pizza eating relay, the ice cream relay, the milking contest and finally the "Who wants to be a moolionaire" contest, which had the principals from all the schools trying to answer dairy questions. What did they get as a prize? A pie-in-the-face from one of their students when they missed a question. Gratitude!
The Dairy Olympics ended with defending champions Roselawn taking home the trophy once again.
Dawes said that the event was very exciting and that she was happy to have attended. She also said she would like to attend more events like Artesia's No Drugs, No Gangs, Drink More Milk program.
"I've never really seen anything like this. They are having so much fun and I wish we had stuff like this back at home," said Dawes.