Vol State Gives Chicken Nuggets For Expired and Unwanted Medication

Vol State hosted a “Nugs for Drugs” event on October 25th. We partnered with Count It, Lock It, Drop It, the Sumner County Anti-Drug Coalition, Campus Police, our AmeriCorps Vistas, the local Sheriffs Department and our campus Pioneer Prevention. A month leading up we posted flyers around campus and in the community, a few weeks before I sent out emails to let people know what we were doing.On the day of, our local Sheriff’s Department delivered a barrel for the drug drop off and we had Campus Police staff the barrel for safety. The event went from 10am- 2pm and we posted ourselves outside in Duffer Plaza (a well trafficked area in the middle of the day). We placed a tent up and had a table with opioid facts/ resources from the Sumner County Anti-Drug Coalition. We played music and had our Vistas pass out t-shirts, chicken nuggets & drinks to any student, faculty, or staff member who dropped off their prescription medication. We were able to fill up the barrel over halfway!We discussed giveaways that would draw in the crowds, we settled on t shirts & chicken nuggets, since everyone loves a free t-shirt & meal. The SCADC went in halvsies on the shirts.The shirts were a big hit. We certainly weren’t trying to make light of the opioid crisis, but we did want to reach our students, faculty, and staff in a way that really got their attention. And I do think this did the trick!We chose this event, because as a commuter campus many of our students work full time and attend class full time, or they are working parents. Many of the CLD drug take-back events are at various locations on Saturdays. Having a drug take-back day during the week at a location our students, faculty, and staff are already planning to be at made this extremely convenient for everyone. In turn they were provided with shirts and food! We have had people ask us for these shirts, so we’ll definitely do this again!

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