NORTHFIELD — Reading about Northfield’s drug-related issues in the media wasn’t enough for Carly Oto.

After watching the issue unfold in local and regional news for nearly two years, the recent graduate of Northfield High School decided during her last semester of school that something more had to be done.

Oto was enrolled in a service learning-oriented independent study with high school teacher Sarah Swan McDonald. After consulting with Swan McDonald and Melissa Larson, a social worker at the middle school, Oto decided to use the independent study as a platform to launch an anti-drug campaign aimed at creating a more positive atmosphere for Northfield Middle School students.

For four weeks over the spring semester Oto put up handmade posters with drug use statistics, drug facts or slogans like, “Maybe you just think that everyone else is doing it,” up in the hallways of the middle school. But she didn’t stop there.

Oto also spent two days in the middle school cafeteria, collecting anti-drug pledges from middle school students. In exchange for the pledges, which asked students to stay drug-free and create a positive environment in the middle school, middle-schoolers received a rubber bracelet with the word “Clean” stamped on it.

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On Wednesday night, Josh Sorvik received his diploma at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center with the rest of his East High School graduating class, the culmination of 13 years of hard work.

Most days, though, the 18-year-old measures his successes in smaller increments.

For instance, on Monday he was able to remove the brace he’s worn for two months around his midsection to keep his bones from twisting.

“Ha, ha — I’m free,” Josh said as he ripped off the white brace decorated with a picture of Spiderman by one of his friends. “I haven’t been able to sit up without that thing since the accident.”

Even without the brace, Josh has a constant reminder of the March 29 fall at Spirit Mountain that stole the use of the lower half of his body: the wheelchair he uses to get around.

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Kaylee Beckinger, 14, held a white petunia Sunday as she walked barefoot through a flower bed along Lebanon Road in West Mifflin. Selecting what she considered the perfect spot, she planted the flower in loose soil, telling friends nearby, “I just hate when dirt gets under my nails.”

Kaylee, of West Mifflin, was taking part with several of her West Mifflin Middle School classmates at the Hot Metal Plaza in a community service project organized by Wendy Betten, owner of the Hot Metal Diner, and West Mifflin Middle School Principal Dave Deramo.

Ms. Betten’s diner is one of three businesses in the plaza.

“We started with 11 piles of dirt and 80 flats of flowers and now we have a garden,” Ms. Betten said, as she admired the scene. Nearly 30 volunteers with shovels, rakes and spades worked to plant hundreds of petunias in neat rows along the islands bordering the plaza parking lot.

Calling the planting effort “Pay it Forward Day,” Ms. Betten hopes to encourage West Mifflin residents to begin offering good deeds to strangers with no expectation of repayment, except that recipients provide a similar good deed for another stranger.

The pay-it-forward concept was popularized by a 2000 movie of the same name that was based on the book written by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

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