Red Ribbon Week at Sierra School of San Diego

Red Ribbon Week at Sierra School of San Diego: Promoting Healthy Choices

Red Ribbon Week is a national awareness campaign dedicated to promoting healthy, drug-free, and positive lifestyles. Schools across the country participate, encouraging students to make choices that keep their minds and bodies healthy and strong.

At Sierra School of San Diego, counselors, staff, and students recently celebrated this year’s theme, “Be Kind to Your Mind.” The weeklong event featured daily activities designed to help students learn how small choices can make a big difference in their overall well-being.

“For more than two decades, Red Ribbon Week has been part of our school community,” said Lanae Aguilera, director of Sierra School of San Diego. “I started this tradition back in 2000 when I was a counselor, and it’s been wonderful to see it carried on and enhanced each year. Our counseling team has truly made it their own, an engaging, educational, and fun event for everyone involved.”

Teaching Students to Care for Their Minds and Bodies

For counselors at Sierra, Red Ribbon Week provides an excellent opportunity to lead a school-wide initiative focused on healthy habits. Their goal is to help students understand why caring for their brain and body matters. When students grasp the reasons behind healthy choices, they’re more motivated to adopt lasting positive habits.

Through lessons on stress management, emotional regulation, nutrition, and the importance of sleep, students learned that self-awareness and self-care are essential for maintaining mental and physical health, both now and in the future. Counselors used visuals, demonstrations, and hands-on activities with small prizes throughout the week to help keep students excited to learn.

Engaging Activities That Build Self-Awareness

Students and staff wrote down their favorite ways to relax and reset, such as coloring, listening to music, or exercising, and posted them on community boards. After contributing, they punched for a prize – punching through tissue-covered cups to reveal a reward symbolizing self-care in action. Students also explored how the amygdala acts as the brain’s emotional “alarm system” and how dysregulation can affect decision-making. They sampled sour candy to experience how sensory input can help the body shift out of “fight or flight” mode.

Exploring the Mind-Body Connection Through Nutrition and Sleep

To better understand the link between nutrition and mental health, students used jars filled with cane sugar to match beverages such as Sprite, Coke, Naked Juice, and Olipop to their sugar content. They discussed how excess sugar can affect mood, focus, and energy, then sampled zero-sugar drinks while brainstorming ways to maintain a more balanced diet. In another activity, students shared their favorite sleep strategies, like keeping a cool room, using sound machines, and limiting screen time, and learned how quality rest supports both emotional and physical regulation.

Celebrating Wellness with a Fun and Educational Twist

The week wrapped up with a Halloween-themed costume day where students and staff dressed up to “scare away unhelpful choices,” reinforcing that making positive decisions can be fun, too.

“Our mission is to help students build lifelong skills for making thoughtful, healthy choices,” Aguilera said. “It’s not just about avoiding harm, it’s about learning to actively care for yourself and your community.”