Last month, in the days before Halloween, Santa Monica elementary school students learned to check their treats for damaged wrappers, misspelled brand names and strange smells. Their presenters were high school volunteers with a nonprofit, many of whose members once attended those schools.
Volunteers from OASIS, short for Opioid Awareness, Support, Intervention Society, presented a Halloween candy safety workshop Oct. 28 and 29 at Franklin and Roosevelt elementary schools. OASIS is a youth-led nonprofit focused on opioid safety, mental health awareness, education and reducing stigma.
The workshop taught students the warning signs of “tricked” candy, including opened or damaged wrapping, unfamiliar brands or misspelled names, and an unusual smell. In a sorting activity, students then separated paper cutouts of popular candies from “tricked” ones. Organizers said the lesson also introduced students to how easily drugs can be disguised as something familiar, so they can recognize potential risks in the future.
“Our workshop is designed to be short and digestible, lasting around 15 to 25 minutes so we don’t take away too much of the students’ designated learning time,” said Morgan Watts, a Santa Monica High School senior, OASIS board member and president of the school’s OASIS chapter. “To keep it engaging, most of us wore funny accessories or costumes.”
“We discuss how Halloween is fun and exciting, but that it’s important to keep safety in mind while trick-or-treating,” Watts said. “We introduce them to potential ‘red flags’ in ‘tricked candy,’ and encourage students to use critical thinking and to talk to a trusted adult if they’re ever unsure about something.”
“We also discuss how drugs can be used appropriately in medical settings, while taking unknown substances or being pressured to take them is unsafe,” Watts said.
For many OASIS members, the visits were a homecoming.
“Many of our members once attended these elementary schools, so returning as high schoolers was especially meaningful,” said Carina Wu, OASIS vice president and co-founder.
Wu did not attend either school as a child. Still, Wu said, returning to Roosevelt this year felt nostalgic.
“I recognized the same familiar playground, the classroom where we prepared and the stairs leading up to the fifth-grade classrooms,” Wu said.
This was the group’s second year presenting at Roosevelt and its first at Franklin. Wu said expanding to a new school felt like “another affirmation that OASIS was making a real impact in our community.”
At Roosevelt, volunteers presented to large groups of fifth graders. At Franklin, a smaller team visited one classroom in each grade, first through fifth.
“With lots of volunteers we were able to break up the presentation and adapt quickly to our audiences,” said Eva Papic, event coordinator for the Santa Monica High School chapter, describing the Roosevelt visit.
At Franklin, Papic said, the shortage of volunteers meant each presenter had more of the material to cover.
“We had to quickly switch up our strategies for each classroom in order to keep our audiences engaged, whether that was coming into the classroom super energetic or trying to be relatable and calm with the older kids,” Papic said. “In all, both schools had amazing students who were engaged and willing to learn.”
“Since it was our first year at Franklin, I was honestly a little nervous. ... However, everything worked out perfectly because our members had been with OASIS long enough to feel confident in both the material and their ability to present it in an engaging way,” Wu said.
Preparation included building slides, training volunteers and putting together goodie bags.
“What surprises me every single time is how rewarding the experience is,” Wu said, adding that “it is only when we see firsthand how eager the students are to participate, ask questions and genuinely learn something new that we realize how worthwhile all that preparation was.”
Erin Youn, a Marymount High School senior, founded OASIS in 2025. The organization has 10 chapters in the Los Angeles area. Its members send care packages to homeless shelters and to people struggling with or recovering from opioid use disorder, and host educational events.
“At OASIS, we believe that prevention ultimately starts with education, and conversations like the ones that we delivered through this Halloween presentation shouldn’t have to wait until students are teenagers,” said Youn, the group’s president.
Youn said OASIS has tackled more serious topics with high school audiences, while the Halloween workshop introduces younger children to safety in an engaging and age-appropriate way.
Youn said opioid education for young people is often framed around fear. OASIS instead aims to help students feel comfortable recognizing unsafe situations and seeking help “without feeling judged.” The goal, Youn said, is to reduce the stigma around substance abuse and mental health while helping students make informed, safe decisions.
More information about OASIS is available at oasiscc.space.