The sky poured sunshine down over more than 2,000 area teenagers and adults Friday morning at the Ross County M.A.D.E. Rally in front of the Ross County Courthouse.
Students were bused from their respective high schools to Yoctangee Park, where they later marched down Paint Street for a rally in front of the courthouse. Several people, including mostly teen members of the Drug-Free Clubs of America or M.A.D.E., were greeted with cheers from the crowd, as they spoke. Several different "drug-free" chants echoed through the streets of Chillicothe during the rally, a city that has been devastated in recent years from the national drug abuse epidemic.
As the students chanted the anti-drug chants, many adult spectators as well as organizers were nothing but smiles to see and hear the throng of students send their message of abstinence to the community.
The hour-long rally at the courthouse was followed by activities in Yoctangee Park, where the students went in a return march from where the day started earlier in the morning.