Page 2 ~ THE VILLAGER/September 2, 2016 THE COMMUNIQUÉ www.theaustinvillager.com

Lea Walker Clark, anordained Chaplain andprofessional counselor, isPresident of No More / NoMás and the architect be-hind this new entity: theEast Austin CoalitionAgainst Substance Abuse(East Austin C.A.S.A.). Thepurpose of No More / NoMás is to say “no more /no más” to violence,abuse, drugs and othernegative forces in the com-munity. “That is why wedecided to form a drugfree coalition. We havehad enough with drugs andits effects and with thisCoalition we will gatherthe strength of the com-munity to say in unison:NO MORE / NO MAS.” Ex-plaining further, she saidthat “we wanted to dosomething to help ouryoung people resist thetemptations associatedwith cigarette, alcohol andprescription drug use.”

According to the literature,these temptations includeearly experimentation withmarijuana and even heroin,use of K2 or synthetic mari-juana, use of illegal and of-ten easily obtainable phar-maceutical drugs.

At its meeting, heldon August 26 at the ChristiCenter in East Austin, theCoalition brought over 30community leaders to-gether “to develop a com-munity centered compre-hensive plan for drug, al-cohol and tobacco preven-tion” according to draftbylaws considered at themeeting.

The agenda for thefirst meeting included thesetting of preliminary pri-orities based upon the re-alities of drug, alcohol andcigarette use in the EastAustin area. Ms. WalkerClark noted that “we havea lot to pick from includ-ing the sale of “loosies” -

cigarettes that are soldindividually outside of thepack, the sale of and mis-use of prescription drugs,the sale and abuse of K2,the synthetic marijuanaproduct made from herbs,spices and sprayed withthe chemical TCH, the ac-tive ingredient in mari-juana.” And, “of course,”she noted, “there is theever-present sale, distribu-tion and abuse of heroin.”

The Coalition will befiling an application inMarch, 2017 and, if suc-cessful, will receive a grantfrom federal Center forSubstance Abuse Preven-tion in the amount of$125,000 per year for fiveyears. As summarized byMs. Walker Clark, “whenwe get this grant, we willdevise a strategic plan fo-cused around a thoroughneeds assessment andachievable goals and ac-tion steps.

Attending the inaugural meeting of East Austin C.A.S.A. are (L) AVLeclair, Chief of Staff, Dawnna Dukes, DIstrict 46 House Representativeand (R) Chaplain Lea Walker-Clark, President, No More, No Mas, Inc.

SAY “NO MORE / NO MÁS”TO VIOLENCE, ABUSE, DRUGS ANDOTHER NEGATIVE FORCES IN THE

COMMUNITY.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Garden in awe.She sang live, danced

heavily and worked thecrowd as she ran through“Pray You Catch Me,”“Hold Up,” “Sorry,” “Don’tHurt Yourself” and “For-mation,” which won thetop prize over Adele,Drake, Justin Bieber andKanye West.

“First of all, I’d like tothank my beautiful daugh-ter and my incredible hus-band for all of their sup-port,” said Beyonce, whowalked the carpet withdaughter Blue Ivy and themothers of Trayvon Martin,Michael Brown and EricGarner — who all appearedin “Lemonade” movie.

Rihanna Receives the Michael JacksonVideo Vanguard Award

Drake, left, presents the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award toRihanna at the MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden

on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016, in New York.(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

It was reminiscent ofthe 2014 VMAs, whenBeyonce also performedfor 16 minutes and ac-cepted the Michael Jack-son Video Vanguardaward. This year it wasawarded to Rihanna, whosplit up her performancesthroughout the night, sing-ing hits such as “Work,”“We Found Love” and“Love on the Brain.”

But the biggest mo-ment for Rihanna camewhen Drake — in a tuxedo— presented the award tohis former girlfriend. Hesaid he met Rihanna in2005 on the set of her firstmusic video for “Pon deReplay.”

“She’s someone I’vebeen in love with since Iwas 22 years old,” Drakesaid as Rihanna blushedand the audience cheeredloudly. “She’s one of mybest friends in the world.All of my adult life I’velooked up to her eventhough she’s younger thanme.”

Rihanna, 28, thankedher family, friends andhometown of SaintMichael, Barbados, forhelping her succeed in her11-year-career.

“My success startedas my dream, but now mysuccess is not my own. It’smy family, my fans, mycountry,” she said.