DA Dumanis Honored for Drug Prevention Work Friday, October 22nd, 2010 9:46 am | by cadfy

By Dana Littlefield

Published October 22, 2010

MISSION VALLEY — A local anti-drug organization presented District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis with a lifetime achievement award Friday for her efforts in drug prevention.

Dumanis was among a group of honorees at the annual Red Ribbon Luncheon, hosted by the San Diego Prevention Coalition, in Mission Valley. This is the seventh year the nonprofit organization has hosted the event.

The luncheon was held in conjunction with Red Ribbon Week, a national drug abuse prevention campaign that began after Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was kidnapped and beaten to death by Mexican drug traffickers in 1985.

“It really is humbling and an honor,” Dumanis said, adding that many people remember where they were more than 40 years ago at the moment they heard President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

“I remember where I was, and I remember the profound sadness to our community, when Kiki Camarena was lost,” Dumanis said to a room filled with more than 250 people, including Camarena’s son, Enrique Jr., now a deputy district attorney working in the South County.

Dumanis said Kiki Camarena gave his life to prevent drugs from winding up in the hands of children. Knowing that, she said, makes her own work mean so much more, particularly those programs with a dual focus of treatment and accountability.

Dumanis received the Frank Goldsmith Lifetime Achievement Award, which the coalition gives annually to a person who has been a leader in the drug prevention field for at least a decade.

The others honored were:

Joe Olesky and Tiffany Findell of the San Dieguito Union High School District, recipients of the Debi Nixon Education Award.

Adriana Rodriguez, a 16-year-old Hoover High School student, who received the Youth Prevention Champion Award and $500 “Natural High” Scholarship.

Assistant Sheriff Ed Prendergast and Escondido Police Lt. Craig Carter, both of whom received the Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Award.

Palomar Pomerado Health and the county Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, both of which were recognized with Outstanding Prevention Program Awards.

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