On Thursday, Ask Listen Learn went west to visit Sioux Falls, South Dakota! Helping us to kick off our fall tour was Attorney General Jackley and the awesome 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and teachers of Axtell Park Middle School. The Attorney General got to do three specialized events, each spending time with 750 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes where he talked to them about how to say NO to underage drinking and YES to a healthy lifestyle. Attorney General shared with Axtell Park students that to get where he is today, he worked really hard in school, listened to his teachers and studied engineering in college. He even showed his special engineering ring to the kids.

Attorney General Jackley then talked about the job of the Top Cop in South Dakota, and the different ways to fight peer pressure. He reminded the students that it’s okay to stand up to peer pressure, help their friends to say no to underage drinking and that drinking alcohol ISN’T cool. Then we played the awesome Ask Listen Learn game, where students cheered really loudly and ran really fast to answer fun questions with the help of their friends and teachers in the audience. We learned so much on Thursday in Sioux Falls, and we can’t wait for our friends from Axtell Park to join us in taking the Ask, Listen, Learn pledge.

Thanks so much for such a great afternoon and for helping us start up our Fall tour in a big way, Axtell Park Middle School!!

We had another great Ask, Listen, Learn event with Attorney General Marty Jackley in Rapid City, South Dakota yesterday. Three hundred 6^th graders at Southwest Middle gathered in the gym for the presentation, though we are lucky the Attorney General made it! Winds were 70 MPH in Rapid City, and General Jackley’s plane was unable to take off. Luckily, he made a last-minute decision to drive, and showed up ready to play the Xavix game!

General Jackley took off his shoes to run on the matt, but these students had obviously been practicing in class to get higher scores. Our field representative Dana said they asked more questions of the General than any group before, and even with the howling wind outside, they shouted YES to a healthy life style and NO to underage drinking so loudly that the entire school could hear it!