An important element of Idaho Drug-Free Youth is right in its acronym — "IDFY."

Not "I-D-F-Y," but "I defy."

"I wanted to make sure 'Idaho' was in it, that the kids were defying drugs," IDFY founder Joe McCarron said Friday. "It took me two days, but I wanted to make it ‘I defy.’"

Defying peer pressure, temptation and the notion teens need to drink and use drugs to have fun is where it all began at Coeur d'Alene High School 30 years ago today.

"It was a lot of our friends. Everybody hung out together and it developed from there," said Justin Hanson of Spirit Lake. "I remember one time when we did the drug testings a year into it, they actually ran out of drug tests because they weren't anticipating as many people."

In 1990, kids actually lined up to be drug tested to prove they were IDFY material.

"It already fit with the way I lived at the time," said Hanson, who was 16 when the program began. "It was a no-brainer."

Hanson was one of the original members of IDFY. He served as the club's second president when he was a junior and senior. He helped promote IDFY by collecting sponsors and making sure the club participated in local parades.

"I've never been a believer in the use of drugs and the abuse of alcohol," Hanson said. "Thankfully, at that time, drugs weren't a really big part of high school."

But some kids were throwing their lives away on drugs and alcohol, and McCarron, who worked with adolescents in drug and alcohol treatment at the time, knew there had to be something he could do to help.

"I had kids on probation and about all of them had drug problems," he said. "They all had to take random (urinalysis tests) and they weren't very happy people."

A radical idea came to him. What if a UA served as a reward rather than a punishment? And what if this testing was brought into the schools with some other perks attached? What if students, of their own free will, declared their abstinence from drugs and could prove it?

McCarron conducted research and found a program in Texas similar to what he was proposing. He came up with the IDFY moniker and went to work.

"I had doors shut in my face. I went to every high school in North Idaho. It was polite, but it was like, 'Hell no, we're not going to have kids pee in a cup,'" he said. "I was just going to give up."

This is where Pat Macey-Caloca came in. She was the CHS theater teacher and advised the peer-to-peer Natural Helpers program. She was essentially McCarron's key to the students.

"I kind of whined to her and I showed her all my brochures," McCarron said with a chuckle.

He met with some of her students in the school library and pitched the IDFY program. The students weren't into it, but the next morning "they called up and said, 'Yeah, we want to go with this because you didn't have to push this on us.'"

IDFY was born: Students applied, parents said "OK," the kids submitted clean urine samples and volunteered to be randomly drug-tested.

"We went forward, and it was crazy,” Macey-Caloca said. “We had to order the drug testing kits, and we had no idea how popular or not popular it would be."

At least 100 kids showed up for that first drug-testing session, all to participate in a new club that declared their commitment to be drug free.

"We’d have meetings about once a month," Macey-Caloca said. "Anyone who wanted to come. We’d do little lunchtime meetings, and it grew."

IDFY became a local institution. Club members were given fancy club cards to show select businesses that were on board to offer discounts, places like arcades, pizza shops, Wild Waters, video game rental stores and more. It became a way of life for many North Idaho youths.

"I felt like it helped give me other reasons to keep doing what I was doing at the time," said Jeff Gray, now of L.A., who joined IDFY in 1994 at Genesee Junior/Senior High School.

"It was less of a calling and more of a survival tactic," he said.

Gray was one of those kids who joined a lot of clubs, but IDFY connected him with other Idaho youths in a major way.

"There was a big ski trip we went on every winter when we went up to Canada for three or four days," he said. "Locally, there was a lot of little dances and things like that."

He went on to serve as a facilitator and counselor and helped train staff for the big yearly retreat that became known as the Idaho Youth Summit, which is held at Camp Lutherhaven.

"IDFY was one of the clubs that, especially the Youth Summit, was a big part of what kicked off where I wanted to go next, especially working with people and being a mentor to people," he said. "In small-town Idaho, alcohol is a big escape for a lot of kids. A lot feel ostracized or lost. They don't have their crew, their people, and I think IDFY was a big part of me feeling like I had people who had my back, so I didn’t have as much of a desire to get into (alcohol)."

One relationship Gray treasures that came from IDFY is his friendship with IDFY's first executive director, Amy Bartoo.

"She’s basically like family to me now," he said.

Bartoo served as IDFY's first executive director from 1991, when it formally became a nonprofit, to 2011.

"It was the best 20 years of my career," she said. "Our goal was to spread the program throughout the state, and that's what I did. At our peak, we had 87 chapters in middle and high schools around the state."

IDFY was something that just took off.

"The kids loved it," she said. "They would put on drug- and alcohol-free events, do speaking events at area civic engagements and they truly had the support of their communities."

Bartoo said the instrumental moment that came to her was when she realized she could do nothing as an adult that would separate this club from other high school organizations.

"I realized it had to be driven by the kids," she said. "My role was to facilitate making their visions come true."

IDFY students became leaders in their communities. They performed memorable and often hilarious skits at school assemblies to spread their message to younger peers. They decided what leadership skills they wanted to learn, and they decided what keynote speakers they wanted to hear from.

"It was kids demonstrating to other kids that you're not weird if you're drug and alcohol free," Bartoo said.

Three decades after the program launched, it is still going strong, although it is having to adapt to the changing times; marijuana is now legal in several states, vaping products are tempting teens and social media makes it that much more important for kids to keep their appearance of "cool."

"We as a culture are normalizing that behavior, the culture of substance use, and making it easier to get into kids’ hands," said Bartoo, who recently joined the IDFY board of directors and is active once again in the movement that has reached more than 100,000 youths in 30 years.

"You have to think about the frontal lobe development," she said. "The longer we can put off the use of these chemicals while these brains are forming, the longer we can put off them being addicted."

Karlynn King, who was heavily involved in IDFY as a youth about 10 years ago, took over as executive director last fall. She said that looking ahead, IDFY will re-establish itself as a connection hub for modern teens and give them opportunities to be together in a positive environment where “they can take their armor off.” A lip sync battle fundraiser is planned for the club in March.

“I think more than ever, with our digital age, that when we talk to teens, they want authentic connection and they’re not getting that these days, even at school,” she said. “We want to provide more of those experiences, and a lot of that is going to come down to more retreats, more events and more opportunities for them to feel safe, feel like themselves, discover their strengths and what makes them feel alive and well and healthy and happy.”

To look back on the work that has been done, and the work that is yet to take place, McCarron can't help but feel proud.

"I'm honored to be called the founder of this program," he said.

But he gives all the glory to the young people who have helped IDFY flourish.

"The real founders are the kids," McCarron said. "I have a lot of kids I run into, so I'm constantly being reminded. It's a constant feeling of gratification to be in a town where I was able to get help to do these things."

Info: www.idahodrugfreeyouth.org