The Monroe County Coalition for Drug-Free Communities acquired new leadership over the past few months with a pair of directors who are both interested in building the coalition’s place in the community and helping local students establish their own drug-free effort.

Monica Kirkpatrick began serving as the coalition’s executive director over the summer, with Christy Gardner joining her as the coalition’s youth director soon after.

Both transplants to Waterloo, the two were friends prior to moving to the county.

Kirkpatrick said she has a background in psychology, with over 20 years spent in the senior living industry and working in senior counseling.

Traveling with her and her husband’s work, she opted to settle down in Waterloo and was brought in to Human Support Services to serve as a mental health first aid coordinator.

Kirkpatrick became acquainted with the coalition through HSS President and CEO Anne Riley, who approached her about the executive director position.

“She came to me with it and asked if I would be interested in running it, and I said yes,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s something different I’ve never done before, and I have a child in the junior high here, so I have a vested interest in what takes place in schools.”

Further expressing interest in contributing to the community, Kirkpatrick emphasized how much she’s come to enjoy Waterloo and Monroe County as she’s called it home for the past 10 years.

“We absolutely love Waterloo, and so I love that I’m a part of that as far as being a leader in the community that I really love so much,” Kirkpatrick said. “I feel like I have an interest in its future and in the future of the kiddos here to stay drug-free.”

Gardner has found a home in Waterloo for nine years, working as a substitute teacher in the Waterloo School District while also teaching gymnastics.

Kirkpatrick was the one who made Gardner aware of the youth director position for the coalition, and she soon came aboard.

She explained that her interest in joining the coalition stemmed from her many years of working with children as well as the fact that, like Kirkpatrick, she herself is raising a family in the community.

“I have always worked with kids,” Gardner said “I have three kids of my own that are coming up through the Waterloo School District, and that’s very important to me. I’d like to get to know the kids, get to know them a little bit more, to know some of the needs that they’re looking at and dealing with and help them to coordinate some of these events.”

Kirkpatrick spoke about some of the work she’s already been involved in over the past few months, with the emphasis really being training, planning and preparation.

She’s mainly focused on getting acquainted with the position, establishing a strategic plan and looking to ensure she can also support Gardner in her efforts in local schools.

Gardner, who joined up at the start of the school year, has similarly been familiarizing herself with the job, though she’s also already been continuing the efforts of Operation Snowball, a student program meant to provide young people with leadership experience in order for them to head drug and alcohol prevention efforts in their schools.

“You go out, learn how to be a leader, and then you take that back to your community,” Gardner said. “It’s to help your community that you end up having strong leaders and you can make strong choices, healthy choices.”

Regarding the coalition’s efforts and direction for the future, Operation Snowball and generally working with county youth is a major focus.

Gardner spoke further about some of the work that’s already been done, with several students attending a yearly teen summit for the program with Columbia’s School Resource Officer Tyler McWhorter.

This and other efforts, as she described, will hopefully help students work with and support their peers when it comes to drug and alcohol concerns at their schools.

She expressed hope that Operation Snowball becomes something of a household name locally, with kids in the county able to describe to their families and friends just what the project is about.

Gardner also noted her hopes for strong student organizations in local schools as well as coalition partnerships with existing student organizations like post-prom – though she added the coalition’s student work will likely look different at each of the county’s schools.

Kirkpatrick also spoke about the importance of the coalition’s student focus, addressing the idea that previous anti-drug efforts aren’t remarkably effective with kids today.

“I think the kids in general, I feel like the way we’ve been doing things like, ‘Just say no to drugs,’ that’s great. It’s a great message. But a lot of these kids are too smart for that these days,” Kirkpatrick said. “They don’t need us talking at them, because it’s just going right over their heads. They’re not listening… They need good information to make good choices for themselves.”

She also touched on the importance of the coalition in general as a group looking to expand awareness of substance abuse in the county.

“I think we have this sense of ‘not in our community,’” Kirkpatrick said. “There’s this blindness to what is really going on. So I feel like just bringing education and awareness to the general public is very close to my heart.”

Regarding other future plans, she noted how she will be helping to conduct training for Narcan administration among local school staff and faculty as a recent mandate established in Illinois requires teachers and staff to be able to administer the opioid antagonist.

Kirkpatrick also helps to generally grow the coalition, bringing new members of the community on-board and pushing to make sure more of the county knows about its work.

“I think our biggest push for this year is just to get brand recognition from the community at large,” Kirkpatrick said. “People start to recognize that we’re here, what we do, who we are and that they can participate as well. This is for everybody.”