OWENSVILLE — An event aimed at 7th graders about the dangers of drug addiction is set for Wednesday, Oct. 21, at First Baptist Church in Owensville.

The day-long event will include about 175 students from throughout Gasconade County. The program is being provided under the umbrella of an organization called CRUSH – Community Resources United to Stop Heroin. Part of the focus of the event is expected to be on the dangers of addiction to opioid-based medications.

Erica Horne, a probation and parole officer based in Union, is heading the Teen Drug Summit project, which is being funded in part with money allocated by the Gasconade County Opioid Settlement Committee. Horne said the schools in the county have been very supportive of the project.

“We are scheduled for Oct. 21 at the Owensville Baptist Church and plan to have approximately 175 students from Gasconade County in attendance and I am beyond thrilled at the response from the schools,” Horne told the Gasconade County Republican.

“We have scheduled some great speakers including Paul Baldwin, Owensville’s school resource officer, Probation and Parole Officer Kevin Blackburn, who lost a son to an opiate overdose, a parolee who has been in the system nearly all his life who is working now with puppies for parole and going back into the prisons to inspire change in current inmates, another former parolee who spent most of his adolescent and 20s in prison for involuntary manslaughter, Chief Marlon Walker from Hermann Police Department and more,” Horne said.

The Teen Drug Summit falls under the Opioid Settlement Committee’s top priority of education and awareness efforts in qualifying to receive a share of the county’s opioid settlement funds.