SIDNEY — Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart — in collaboration with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office — has announced the Sheriff’s Office has received an award letter for the 2020-21 DARE grant in the amount of $135,495.19.

This award will allow the Sheriff’s Office to continue its support of local school systems, by placing school resource officers (SRO’s) in those participating schools and continuing the DARE Program.

The Sheriff’s Office has SRO’s in Sidney High School, Sidney Middle School, Anna Local School District, Botkins Local School District, Fairlawn Local School District and Hardin Houston School District.

“This grant will also allow us to continue to teach DARE classes in all of the county school districts,” said Lenhart. “In the 2018-19 school year we taught the DARE curriculum to 425 students and in the 2019-20 school year we taught the DARE curriculum to 415 students. We held the annual DARE camp, where in the 2018-19 school year we had 170 students participate from Anna, Botkins, Fort Loramie, Fairlawn, Houston, Jackson Center and Russia school districts.

“Due to COVID-19 we only had 22 students participate for the 2019-20 school year. Deputy Brian Strunk held Outreach programs in Jackson Center, Hardin Houston and Botkins, where he had 42 students participate,” he said. “The Sheriff’s Office remains very pleased that we can continue the DARE program and provide SRO’s in the select schools, where we can provide safe and secure facilities for our students to be taught in.”