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My name is Mitch Dorge,
and I’ve instigated a program called In Your Face and Interactive.
It’s called In Your Face and Interactive because I get into peoples’
faces and it’s interactive because I involve them in what I do.
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I originally put this program together because I wanted to
come up with a way to inspire people to reconnect with music.
After I started doing it for awhile, educators started coming up to me and saying,
“Hey, it really seems like you have a connection with kids. Would you be willing to come and
and talk at our school?” Since then, people have approached me about talking about drugs,
about drinking and driving. I’ve done teen pregnancy, I’m into the whole bullying thing.
I’ve done whole presentations just on crystal *** alone.
Mitch Dorge gives a very powerful message to the students about making responsible choices,
about making life choices
and about accepting the fact that we make decisions
everyday and that there are consequences for the decisions we make –
sometimes good, sometimes bad.
We live in a culture that says alcohol and drugs is just a part of our life.
Although you guys might not think so, look at it this way.
Who can think of a time that their parents were going to have a party
that they didn’t say, "Let’s make sure we have wine or beer."
Right? It happens.
It always happens. "We’re going to go out, go to the bar."
Our culture has just said that that’s the things we need to have fun
so it’s no surprise when you guys grow up
and you guys say, "That’s what we need to do to have fun."
But we just had a great time and no one needed to be drunk or high which is awesome.
He had them engaged. He had them role-playing. He had them interacting
and they had a lot of fun and they listened to him!
I really believe that kids need honesty, they need the real thing.
By not lying to them, by telling them the truth about these things –
the truth about drinking and the truth about drugs. It’s not all bad things
but it does get out of hand if you’re not careful.
And the thing is, it spreads to every part of your life.
The message I got out of it was be responsible,
think before you do. He told us that story about people
drinking and doing drugs and the consequences of it.
I really liked how, instead of being negative about it, and saying,
“You guys shouldn’t do this, you guys shouldn’t do that,” he showed us
what could happen
For Mitch to come out here to Miramichi, we’re a pretty spread out area,
not many people know who we are or where we are, and especially a school like this
in Millerton which is really on the outskirts. It was great for Mitch to be able to come out
to a place like this and reach kids that were probably once unreachable.
It’s when you see the eyes
open up and you know that you’ve said something that has meant
something to somebody, to me that’s the epiphany
right there. I’m hoping they’re at somebody’s party or they’re at
somebody’s house or they’re on the bus on their way home, talking about what they experienced
here today. That’s what I hope is happening. If that’s happening
on any level, then I’ve succeeded in what it is that I’m trying to do.
They’re saying, “He taught us to follow our dreams
and to be true to ourselves and that we can be anything we want to be.
You never know, it may be his message that helps that child
change the direction of their life.
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[Applause]