Eagle Scout partners with DEA to host 5K drug awareness walk-a-thon in Anaheim

ANAHEIM, Calif. (KABC) -- More than 100 hundred participants showed up for a free and unique 5K walk-a-thon at the Yorba Regional Park in Anaheim on Saturday. The goal was to raise awareness on drug prevention and education.

"Our goal is to bring awareness, not your hardcore typical drugs ... but your illicit substance people have access to in their everyday lives," Samuel Paik, an Eagle Scout who organized the event.

This was a part of 16-year-old Samuel Paik's Eagle Project on community drug harm reduction. Paik partnered up with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Red Ribbon Patch program to make this happen.

"We are trying to empower people to make more intelligent decisions about drug use," said Bill Bodner, a special agent with DEA in Los Angeles.

Paik is a sophomore at Sonora High School in the city of La Habra and has been a boy scout for more than five years.

"I realized that these illicit substances aren't just doing harm to the user, but there's a social harm ... that's really what inspired me to do something like this," said Paik.

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