Mentor Foundation USA and Partners Host National Drug Facts Day for High School Students to "Shatter The Myths" About Drugs

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In observance of National Drug Facts Week (NDFW), Mentor Foundation USA, in partnership with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Embassy of Sweden and other key partners (as listed below), are again hosting a National Drug Facts Day (NDFD) event at the House of Sweden on Jan. 30, 2013, from 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.  The House of Sweden is located at 2900 K Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20007.

One hundred sixty local high school students have been invited to the annual event to interact with top U.S. scientific experts and inspiring guest speakers to "shatter the myths" about drugs and substance abuse, and pledge to stay drug-free.

For the second year in a row, global fashion retailer H&M is participating in NDFD to celebrate students that competed in the 2012 "drug-free" T-shirt slogan contest. The winner will be announced at the NDFD event, and H&M will sell T-shirts with the winning slogan in their Washington D.C. metro area stores at the end of January. 25% of the proceeds from the sale of the t-shirts will be donated to Mentor Foundation USA's programs. "We are pleased to partner with Mentor Foundation USA to help raise awareness amongst young people about the dangers of the use of drugs," says Daniel Kulle, President of H&M North America. "Our sponsorship of the drug-free slogan contest is a way for us to help engage these students and motivate them to stay healthy."

New partners this year include A&E Networks, the creator of the Emmy Award-winning A&E series "Intervention," which captures the devastating effects of drug and alcohol addiction, and Comcast, one of the nation's leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services. 

Other supporting partners include Endo a 21^st Century health care company and the Venable Foundation.

The students will also participate in poetry workshops led by the DC Youth Poetry Slam Team where they are able to express their feelings around substance abuse.

National Drug Facts Week is an annual week-long health observance to bring out the facts about drugs and drug abuse organized by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. NDFW will be Monday, Jan. 28 through Sunday, Feb. 3, and it will celebrate the inquisitive minds of teens by giving them a space (virtual or physical) to ask questions about drugs and to get scientific answers from experts.                                                                       

About the Mentor Foundation USA. The Mentor Foundation USA mission is to prevent drug abuse and promote health and well-being among children and youth in the United States.  Mentor USA offers programs that combine the best of international and U.S. prevention efforts. Mentor USA's approach is to bring the business community together with schools and offer prevention initiatives to youth through different programs. The Mentor Foundation was founded in 1994 by H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden and in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). Mentor Foundation has chapter organizations in Colombia, Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, UK, USA and a Regional Chapter in Lebanon serving 22 Arab countries.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is quoted on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. The company's business concept is to offer fashion and quality at the best price. In addition to H&M, the group includes the brands COS, Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday, as well as H&M Home. The H&M Group has approximately 2,700 stores in 48 markets including franchise markets. In 2011, sales including VAT were SEK 128,810 million and the number of employees was more than 94,000. For further information, visit www.hm.com.

Contact: Michaela Pratt: (202) 536-1594, [email protected]

SOURCE Mentor Foundation USA