Students from area middle schools participate in team and trust building activities at a Project PANDA Camp. The prevention program will be celebrating its 100th camp April 18-20 at Camp Muskingum.

Photo courtesy of Chrissy Lockhart

Here’s something else you officially now know about Wentz: He doesn’t care for the distinction.

It’s not that he isn’t appreciative of how he’s viewed. It’s just that he prefers to take the humble approach, to simply view himself as a “contributor,” as a guy who, he says, just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

According to Wentz, he was just a normal, everyday prevention specialist working alongside Marty Gaudiose and Karen Vadino to create the one thing he would eventually consider to be the best work he’s ever done in more than 30 years in his field — Project PANDA (Prevent and Neutralize Drug and Alcohol Abuse).

Project PANDA is a substance abuse, peer-to-peer prevention program designed to aid sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students in making the choice to abstain from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. The program takes its roots from Teen Institute (TI), the nationwide youth leadership/prevention initiative.

Wentz, currently the community services director at the Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic in Youngstown, said part of his job in 1979 was to create a regional TI program in Mahoning County. That program became Project PANDA in 1981, which Wentz said was cloned and brought to Summit County around the same time. In Summit County, it’s administered by the Community Health Center and funded by the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board.

According to Summit County Project PANDA Coordinator Lauren Bush, students are introduced to the program at school, where individual PANDA clubs are held. Bush, who leads five of them herself, said about 20-75 students comprise clubs at participating middle schools across the county that usually meet twice a month to participate in student-led awareness activities. In the West Side Leader’s coverage area, Copley-Fairlawn, Revere and Woodridge middle schools have a PANDA club.

But Bush said a critical component of what students do takes part outside of school during educational camp experiences. In Summit County, PANDA Camps take place in April and October at various locations, run from Friday through Sunday, and generally host about 100 to 120 students from different schools.

Once at camp, Bush said a student participates in workshops, team-building activities, presentations and smaller group situations known as “family groups.” She said these events promote personal development, refusal skills and age-appropriate substance information while also demonstrating how to have fun without the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

Camps are run and supervised by adult volunteers. But Bush said a big part of the program centers on the 20 high school students who volunteer their time to be youth leaders and role models.

Bush and Wentz both said the words “youth leader” represent the big difference between Project PANDA and other like-minded prevention programs. It’s what helps drive the student-led, peer-to-peer interaction both say is so crucial to the program’s success.

Wentz said there’s a saying. He added it’s completely cliché, but also completely true.

“For too long we’ve done things at kids instead of with kids,” he said. “[Project PANDA] is not just a curriculum ... . We’re going to involve you in a lifestyle.”

“[The younger kids] are seeing it more from looking up to a role model rather than having another adult telling them what to do,” Bush said.

Summit County’s Project PANDA is set to celebrate its 100th camp April 18-20 at Camp Muskingum. Bush and Wentz both said the number “100” is impressive — a milestone even — but it isn’t as important as other numbers. Especially these: Camp No. 100 means that Project PANDA has logged more than 25 years as a “consistent and effective” prevention program in Summit County, has seen more than 10,000 students representing more than 20 middle schools participate and has benefited from the efforts of more than 500 volunteers.

Wentz emphasized those results given another number: 11.4 years old — the average age a child is when he first uses alcohol. Wentz said given that number, it wouldn’t surprise him to see adolescents who have developed a serious chemical dependency before they reach high school.

Wentz said that’s the bad news. He added the good news is that programs like Project PANDA have played a major role in the statewide 21 percent decrease (since 1987) of drug use in middle school students.

“I don’t think we could have ever predicted this kind of success,” he said. “The program leaves quite a legacy.”

For more information on Project PANDA, visit www.projectpanda.org.