By Jessica Honigford
Community Post
MINSTER – Sixth graders at Minster Middle School completed their DARE programs on Friday.  The students attended a graduation ceremony led by their DARE officer Deputy Samuel Blank of the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Department.  Sheriff Allen F. Solomon addressed the student, their teachers and parents in attendance. Solomon told the audience that he had arranged for the graduation to take place on a day he could attend, because he felt it was important for him to be
there. 

“You are part of our family now,” he told the students.  “I mean that with all sincerity.”
Minster Chief of Police Randy Hauseworth also attended the graduation ceremony.
Each student participating in DARE is required to write an essay prior to graduation.  J.R. Nixon, Logan Arnold and Regan Hahn were chosen as this year’s essay winners.  They were each presented with a plaque and a medal for their achievements.  
The students then all took the pledge to remain drug-free and to leave healthy lives filled with good decision-making.
The three officers then presented each student with a certificate of completion of the DARE program and a DARE shirt for their hard work.
Every student in the Minster, St. Marys and New Bremen DARE programs graduated this year, a feat which the officers said, is not always that easy.