“Capturing the attention of over a thousand high school students isn’t easy but when Tony was telling his story, you could hear a pin drop in our gymnasium. Prior to Tony’s speech, I had several students approach me saying that they hoped this wasn’t another assembly telling them not to do drugs. It certainly wasn’t, those same students were extremely appreciative that they had the opportunity to listen to his story. Our student body was a buzz after the assembly. Some comments that I heard from our students were “best speaker ever,” “he really connected with us,” and “thank you for not wasting our time.” Tony took the time to answer over 20 questions from our students after his presentation and spent time meeting with individual students. His presentation impacted our students in a positive way and we were lucky to have him at Wallenpaupack Area High School.”
Last year Hope 4 Pike an amazing grassroots organization brought me into the Milford, Pennsylvania area to do some speaking at a local high school and give a community presentation. It was definitely a memorable time because of the people and the kids at DV High School. Getting a chance to come back this year to present more substance abuse speeches and how my life was affected by drugs got me pumped! I knew that I was heading into a great little part of the country. This year my trip was made possible thanks to Carbon Pike Drug & Alcohol Commission and I was set to give 2 school presentations. The first one was to Wallenpaupack Area High School, home to a little over 1,000 students.
Earlier in the week I was in Wisconsin and the schools that I was visiting were much smaller, Hayward High School did have a good amount of students though. I still get a rush when there is so many students in one building, there is just something about having an opportunity to make an impact on so many people at once!
I must say all of the students there and their response to my time with them was overwhelming in a very good way. So many reached out to me on Instagram and the time we spent during Q & A was so quality, so many good questions and courageous questions to be asking in front of 1,000 of their peers. Sometimes you have an audience tightly held in your hands, this was one of them and i’m super grateful when it’s this way because the impact left with them is so strong because the message is making it into their core.
Thank you again Carbon Pike D/A for making this round of speeches possible!
