Substance abuse prevention awards
A Marquette County woman and an area business received awards today for their commitment to preventing drug, alcohol and tobacco use among young people.
Carroll Ann Swanson is 2013’s Marquette County Preventionist of the Year.
She worked for Marquette General Behavioral Health for more than 20 years.
A middle school student she recently counseled told her, “You get me. You talk to me like a real person.”
“As honored as I am to be recognized by my peers, that’s the award,” Swanson said. “That’s the award of the children benefiting from it…that’s what I’m looking for; that’s why I show up every day.”
Superior Entertainment Center in Marquette Township is the county’s Prevention Organization of the year.
The manager of the bowling center, bar and restaurant trains other businesses on how to stop serving underage drinkers.
“That’s not always easy,” manager Amy Manning said. “There are a lot of challenges that go along with that, so it’s really nice to be recognized for the fact that we do our best every day to make sure that we’re being responsible with alcohol.”
The Marquette County Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention Coalition gave out the awards during a meeting in Marquette earlier today.