After having their picture taken with Grand Master Dluge, the youth had a picture signed and framed as a memento in appreciation for hosting their first conference at the Masonic Conference Center.

About 125 high school youth attended the Pennsylvanians Against Underage Drinking (PAUD) Youth-to-Youth Conference Jan. 4-7 at the Masonic Conference Center on the Patton Campus in Elizabethtown. On Saturday, Jan. 6, Robert L. Dluge, Jr., R.W. Grand Master, addressed the youth, congratulating them on their pledge to remain drug- and alcohol- free.

Students, with adult supervision, ran the conference for youth from throughout the Commonwealth. The student leaders selected and sponsored workshops for those attending to give them skills and information necessary to provide drug- and alcohol-free programs at the home schools. Several of the students, as a result of the training, will become student leaders and will provide guidance and training to other students in establishing S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions) clubs in their schools.

The Pennsylvania Masonic Foundation for Children is an active member of the PAUD Steering Committee, which organized the conference. Bro. Raymond G. Brown, the Executive Director of the Foundation, and Deborah McCoy, the Foundation's liaison with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, attended the conference.