Nov 15, 2021 2 min read

A Cecil Township couple has donated $10,000 to the Washington County Sheriff’s Department’s DARE program.

Mike Lauderbaugh made the presentation Friday at Fort Cherry Elementary School on behalf of him and his wife, Tera.

“I know the program is important to have through the school districts,” Mike Lauderbaugh said. “It’s difficult for them to get funding. To try to ease some of the burden my wife and I wanted to make a donation to help the program out and keep it going. We feel it’s important for the kids to go through it and experience the whole program.”

DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Program) is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches students from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

According to its website, the Washington County DARE Program is operating in its 17th year. The program is being taught in fifth and sixth grades in the Avella, Bentworth, Fort Cherry, McGuffey, Ringgold and Trinity school districts, as well as Faith Christian School and John F. Kennedy Catholic Elementary School.

Deputy Sheriff Elizabeth Davidson, DARE instructor for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, said the program operates on a budget of about $20,000.

“We couldn’t be more happy,” she said. “This will take care of half of our budget.”

Lauderbaugh went to elementary school in the Fort Cherry district and is a graduate of Canon-McMillan High School, where his wife is an English teacher. The presentation was made at Fort Cherry Elementary School, since DARE instruction was taking place at the school Friday.

The couple owns Red Fox Winery and Lounge in Hickory.

“It feels great,” he said. “We love to be able to donate and give back to the community. We do a lot of fundraising. It’s something we both feel is important.”