Sending an Early Warning on Gangs--and How Staying in School’s Cool : Rally: Santa Ana holds a fun day of parades, hot dogs, balloons and stage shows, but that’s all to deliver an anti-crime message to youngsters.

SANTA ANA — To 10-year-old Gilbert Alvarez, Saturday’s second annual Anti-Gang Anti-Drug Rally and March was a fun day of parades, hot dogs, balloons and stage shows--but the event’s serious message did not go unnoticed.

“I think it was good, because they’re telling kids to stay in school and be cool,” Gilbert said, giggling to friends about his rhyme. “They tell you don’t do drugs, and they tell us things to keep you out of gangs.”

Heads nodded on all of the surrounding youngsters: Ruben Serrano, 9; Jonathan Vargas, 12; Alfred Pintor, 9, and Alvaro Flores, 10.

“Drugs can destroy your body,” said Alvaro, unscrolling a giant orange banner that his fifth-grade class at Jackson Elementary School made to carry in Saturday’s parade around Santa Ana Civic Center.

The rally was sponsored by the Santa Ana Recreation and Community Services Agency’s Project PRIDE, which stands for Parks and Recreation Inspire Dignity and Esteem. The letters were printed on all of the sky-blue T-shirts worn by hundreds of elementary school children and on dozens of helium balloons that bobbed above the crowd.

The day began Saturday morning with about 2,000 youths participating in a parade of marching bands, colorful banners and costumed characters. The parade ended about noon at the Santa Ana Civic Center, where about 300 children and parents ate hot dogs and joined a rally.

“This is your city, and this is my city,” said Victor Vasquez, master of ceremonies at the rally. “And we’re all here to show we can have a good time without joining a gang and without taking drugs, and staying in school.

“Right?”

“Right!” the audience roared back.

Allen Doby, director of the city recreation department, said events were part of a year-round program that the city conducts in all of its elementary schools to teach third-graders about drugs and gangs.

When the program started two years ago, Doby said, it was aimed at fifth-graders, then “we realized that was too late.”

In third grade, Doby said, “they want to know, is it OK not to be in a gang? We want to say yes. Our message is, you don’t have to join a gang.”