Project Keep Straight is off to an incredible start as a group of our hometown heroes have landed in Vancouver.

2 RCMP officers are making the trip to accompany 4 young Okotoks Oilers hockey players to the big city, where the goal is to witness first hand, the effects of drugs and addictions.

Cst. Jeff Girard with the Okotoks RCMP is one of the officers on the trip.

He says that so far the players are excited, and willing to learn.

"They're all excited.  They have filled out pre-trip questionnaires on what they hope to get out of this experience.  A lot of them commented that they want to see exactly what it is, they don't want to read about it in a newspaper or watch it on a video, they want to take the experience to a personal level."

With that in mind, Cst. Girard said they had a busy afternoon and evening planned for the group, who started the day with presentations preparing the youth for the sights, sounds of smells of addiction.

"We're done here with our presentations, so soon we'll be taking a trip with the Vancouver Police Department Harbour Patrol on their boat.  We'll get some drug and addictions awareness with training and knowledge from the harbour and how the drugs get into the city.  After that we'll be walking the streets of East Hastings and speaking with the people who are living the addiction's life."

East Hastings is one of Vancouver's oldest areas, and is notorious for drugs, sex work, poverty and homelessness.

The Oilers players will be speaking to some of the residents of East Hastings, to find out how individuals who once had it all - now live on the streets, addicted, with nothing to their names.

Today, Cst. Girard says the group will be traveling to the Vancouver City Police's training head quarters, where they'll learn what it takes to keep drugs off of city streets.

"The plan is to visit one of the training facilities for the Vancouver Police Department.  We'll put them through some small training seminars in a controlled environment on how everyday police officers train and prepare for drug investigations and tactical responses."

Upon safe arrival back to town, the group will reflect on what they've witnessed and learned as they prepare to take their first hand experiences into Foothills schools, where they'll attempt to educate students on the dangers of drugs and addiction.

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