“I just wanted to thank Putnam County Youth Development Commission as an educator for bringing Tony Hoffman to the students in your county and to further congratulate you for a great program. I have been in education for 20+ years and I have never seen 1,400+ kids so quiet for an entire hour.”
To finish up my speaking run last week I found myself back in the state of Indiana! I was there the week previous in Columbus speaking for a community event geared towards education and breaking down the stigma of addiction. This event would be focused on the school districts apart of Putnam County. This event was put on by a wonderful woman by the name of Linda. She is the Executive Director apart of Putnam County Youth Development Commission. I got to meet Linda and her husband the night before, they picked me up from the airport. Still my favorite thing to do is meet and chat with the people who organize the events that i'm apart of. It's just refreshing to me that people are so invested in their communities and genuinely want to make positive mark, this is Linda and her husband to the T.
When I got to the location where I would be speaking, I gotta tell you, I was BLOWN away. This gym for a high school, sat 5200 people! It was said to be one of the 8th largest high school gyms in the world.. Yes, the world! 1400 kids from 5 different schools were to fill one side of this gym. Immediately when I saw the setup I was so bummed that Marcus and Teejay, my production guys were not in the house to capture what I knew was about to be amazing.
The speech was epic, the kids were awesome and the response was so freaking good! Over 250 comments on my Instagram, over 200 private messages asking for advice or telling me how much my speech impacted them. In fact, i'm still getting messages from the kids in Greencastle, it was literally amazing. I feel so blessed that i'm connected with these kids in such a way. It's definitely a rush and a positive feeling. I love when kids tell me afterwards, we thought you were going to be the same old substance abuse or motivational speaker that comes in and tells us not to use drugs, blah blah blah, but you were different. I pride myself on being different and speaking of different, this entire event was different and in such a great way! I'm so glad that I got to come out and speak to so many students and make such a great impact. Thank you Linda and her entire team for allowing me to be apart of your community!
