TEENS USE `TEAM SPIRIT' TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

In the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the grunge group Nirvana sings of perceived angst predominant among today's youth.

At a Team Spirit conference going on in Cape Girardeau, 115 teens from throughout Southeast Missouri are learning they need not feel overwhelmed by problems in their communities. Working together, they can help solve the problems, particularly those caused by drug and alcohol use.

The four-day Team Spirit conference began Tuesday at Victorian Inn and runs until Friday morning. Started nationally in 1989, the Cape Girardeau meeting is the first of its kind in Missouri.

"The goal is to write an action play for their schools focusing on drug and alcohol, especially as it pertains to drinking and driving," said Sharee Galnore, special officer with the Cape Girardeau Police Department's Community Traffic Safety Program and an event organizer.

Groups of 10 to 12 students from Cape Girardeau Central, Notre Dame, Jackson, Meadow Heights, Scott City, Perryville, St. Vincent, Senath-Honersville and Delta C-7 in Deering are participating.

Throughout the week, students will be working to design anti-substance-abuse and drinking and driving programs for their communities. They will also attend a number of workshops on various related issues conducted by members of the Missouri Highway Patrol, the Cape Girardeau Police Department and others.

Tuesday the students concentrated on identifying the strengths, weaknesses and resources of their communities and how those aspects pertain to what they are trying to accomplish.

"A big part of this camp is getting them to decide problems they have at their schools and figure out ways to solve problems using the resources they have," said Tom Berkbigler, a senior at Notre Dame. Berkbigler is one of 15 student supervisors working as part of the conference's staff.

Berkbigler said the problems students are intended to address are not things that can be taken care of in one day, but neither are they goals beyond reach.

"We have a lot of drinking at our school so we have to help solve and cut it down a little bit," Meadow Heights junior Brook Seabaugh said of the goals of her school's group. Seabaugh said that among many students at her school "drinking is a weekend event."

Although they will be working from early in the morning until late at night this week, the conference also allows participants a chance to meet peers from different parts of the region.

"It's been really fun," Berkbigler said. "We work but it's a lot of fun getting together and enjoying what we do."

Seabaugh said, "It's a mix of different schools pulling together while having a stupendous time."