Throughout my years of work, wether it was my non-profit Freewheel Project or through substance abuse and mental health speaking, i’ve built a vast group of contacts and resources. These people have come to my aid/support in the different types of work I am doing. Several years ago, a now friend, J.D came to help the Freewheel Project board of directors. J.D and I have stayed friends for a long time and he recently reached out to me and wanted me to speak with the middle school and high school students of Parlier Unified School District.
Parlier is not far from where I grew up in Clovis, California. Parlier is a farm community just outside of Fresno and is home to a very large hispanic population. Much like every area, Parlier faces their own challenges. Someone had brought to the school districts attention that some of their students were showing up at the hospitals emergency room for drug related reasons. This sparked Parlier Unified into action and I got the phone call. I’m always excited to speak locally, this was no different!
Both presentations went exceptionally well! The middle school kids were super respectful and attentive during my presentation, the high school students were nearly the same. We had some microphone issues at first and I was worried that was going to cause problems with attention but we got my microphone switched and everything went smoothly after that. I want to say thank you to the entire district of Parlier and my boy J.D. Thank you for your hospitality and thank you for hosting me in front of your students, i’m grateful!