There was a time to face reality, and a time for having fun.
The time for both was Saturday at the 20th Annual Teen Fest, sponsored by the Young Women’s Outreach Center. The event was held for ages 10-18 at Lenoir Community College.
There were workshops in the morning for the girls and for the boys, as well as classes on subjects such as drugs and alcohol prevention, self esteem, date rape, sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy prevention, bullying and environmental control.
Following a lunch, the teens watched live entertainment in the afternoon.
Brionna Harrison, 16, of Snow Hill, took a workshop on self-esteem. She said a lot of young people have issues with how they feel about themselves.
“Basically,” she said about what she gleaned from the class, “it’s like it doesn’t matter what you have on the outside. It’s what’s on the inside.”
Winta McNeil, 18, of Snow Hill, was moved by her instructor’s experience with date rape. She said she was concerned about abuse.
“(The instructor) said walk away when anybody gets angry,” McNeil said.
Joyce Clark, executive director and founder of the YWOC, said 20 years ago, Eastern North Carolina rated No. 1 across the state in teen pregnancies.
Working in mental health, Clark said she saw that families needed a holistic approach to reduce the teen pregnancy numbers.
“This was a calling,” she said, “and a need to help the youth.”
The goal was to educate not only the youth, but their families, she said. In time, the program evolved to include many other issues the community faces.
Like bullying.
Curtis Speller, a gang prevention specialist, didn’t mince words when he told students not to bully the weaker students in school and to realize the affects bullying has on others.
“Don’t bully teachers,” he said. “Don’t bully everybody at school.”
He warned the class that bullying students could cause what Martin Luther King Jr. fought to change to turn around and segregate them into low-performing schools.
“It taught me how not to bully,” said Phillip Boney, 13, of Kinston, “and be fair to people.”
Kinston Public Safety Director Bill Johnson facilitated a workshop for boys only. His emphasis was on getting young teens to think about how education relates to an expected standard of living.
Students had to choose a career and determine their salary, based on their education. Then they had to figure up a household budget and see whether their salary could meet their expectations.
Johnson wanted them to understand how education relates to income, which relates to a person’s standard of living.
“I think some of them got it,” he said about the students. “Others don’t really look down the road 20 years.”
Sgt. Chad Rouse with Kinston’s Narcotics Division said young people know drugs are illegal and bad, but they don’t realize the “revolving door” of arrests often starts with one marijuana seed.
“But what they don’t understand,” he said, “is the concept of what it costs them monetarily and the damage it does to their family. Their going to jail is just a small portion of what actually occurs.”
Rouse filled a chalkboard with fee after fee and explains how those fees compound as a person continues to mount up charges against them. Additionally, their parents could be charged, as well, in some circumstances. And the charges, particularly felonies, don’t go away.
“I would say 90 percent starts with just what we hear, ‘It’s just marijuana,’ ” Rouse said. “And then it extends.”
Clark said she sees young adults who can’t get a job because of their past drug or criminal record.
Isiah McCullum, 17, of Greenville, said the drug and alcohol workshop provided plenty of examples of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“It’s going to help me choose who I’m going to hang around with,” he said, “— be more watchful.”
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.