Even after 24 years in front of students, Burr Ridge DARE officer Angie Wilhelmi still gets nervous before talking to a class. But like any teaching veteran, Wilhelmi hides it well.
During a recent lesson about decisions and consequences, Wilhelmi was totally in control talking to fifth-graders at Pleasantdale Middle School about the choice to try a cigarette. She talked to students about the effects smoking has on an individual and those around him or her. Wilhelmi noted there are 50,000 deaths in the United States annually from secondhand smoke.
She said from all science has proven about smoking, it is amazing that individuals still decide to light up.
“Now, in my 25th year as a police officer, the one fact that totally floors me is that there are 200 known poisons in cigarettes,” she told Pleasantdale students.
Wilhelmi then noted some of chemicals in cigarettes: rat poison, acetone and formaldehyde.
“Smoking is the fourth leading cause of preventable death,” Wilhelmi said.
An officer in the Burr Ridge Police Department for 25 years, Wilhelmi said she was offered the opportunity to go into classroom and teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education curriculum right away, but she declined.
“I wanted street experience,” she said.
After almost a year as a patrol officer, Wilhelmi then felt comfortable putting in the request to also teach the DARE curriculum. Using videos, a workbook and straight talk, Wilhelmi teaches students in Burr Ridge middle and elementary schools about the dangers of alcohol and drugs.
“No one wants to lose friends,” Wilhelmi said during her recent hour with two Pleasantdale classes combined for a DARE lesson. “But if a ‘friend’ pressures friends to smoke, I don’t believe that person is a being a true friend, someone who is looking out for us.”
She said whether to smoke or not is an individual’s decision, but she asked students to at least wait until they reach age 18, the legal age for cigarette purchases and use, before trying a cigarette.
Wilhelmi spends the school year rotating between Gower, Pleasantdale and Burr Ridge middle schools and Elm Elementary School. She noted that after 24 years, she is starting to teach children of students she saw early in her teaching career.
“You get to build a relationship between students and the police,” she said of her job. “I am happy with the way we have been able to implement the program.”
During the summer with schools not in session, Wilhelmi returns to the patrol beat. One of her favorite memories of being on the streets was helping to deliver a baby on the side of a road.
“The baby was born at 4:35 (a.m.). My badge number,” Wilhelmi said.
Wilhelmi also helps with the village’s Citizens Police Academy and Neighborhood Watch program.
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John Glimco, principal of Pleasantdale Middle School, said he thrilled to get Wilhelmi and the DARE curriculum back in front of students after a short hiatus in District 107.
“We love having her at the school,” Glimco said. “There is no one better in expressing this vital information to students.”
Wilhelmi knows the time will come for her to pass the teaching torch to another officer, but says as long as she still has the passion she will continue her work with students.
“I love doing this,” she said. “I loved being with the students. I love being at the schools.”