court, defense and arrest tactics, drug impaired driving, firearms, crime prevention, D.A.R.E., school liaison, emergency medical operations, fire operations, investigations, bike patrol, and ends with a graduation ceremony. As a participant in the Academy, you will experience many hands-on activities throughout the classes.

The Department also offers an Advanced Citizens Academy every two years, normally in the fall. The Advanced Academy is offered to graduates of the basic academy. This program updates graduates on new programs and goes in depth with current Department services. Prior participation in the Citizen Academy Class is a prerequisite.

Once a participant graduates from the Citizens' Academy program, he/she is invited to join the Ashwaubenon Citizen Academy Alumni Association/VIPS. The Alumni/VIPS are a fantastic group of volunteers who assist the department in a number oflike Ss. Francis and Joan of Arc, together with good, old-fashioned charity, encourage Catholics to read a positive spin into quirky behavior.

On Holy Saturday, the year I was serving as an RCIA sponsor, I woke up late. That Lent, i’d sworn off booze, and indulging for the first time in six weeks, at the end of a day of fasting, had knocked me flatter than an Escalade squashes a jackrabbit. Remembering I was supposed to join the candidates and other sponsors for a morning retreat, I drove hell for leather to the Montessori school where the retreat was being held. Anxious as I was, I walked through the wrong door, tripping the alarm.

But I noticed this only later. As soon as I passed through the school into the