Pubdate: Mon, 05 May 2003 Source: Leaside-Rosedale Town Crier (CN ON) Copyright: 2003 Town Crier Media Inc. Contact: http://www.towncrieronline.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2362 Author: Basil Botetzayas Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/George+Chuvalo (Chuvalo, George) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) CHUVALO DELIVERS THE ONE-TWO PUNCH ON DRUG ABUSE The man, a Canadian legend, is as big as they come yet his message -- that of a Canadian tragedy -- dwarfs his physical stature by comparison. Former heavyweight boxer George Chuvalo has taken his crusade against substance abuse continent-wide with his frequent visits to high schools to give youngsters first hand knowledge of the devastating effects substance abuse can have on them and their families. Chuvalo, who reigned as Canadian Heavyweight Boxing Champion for 21 years, was staggered on the ropes so to speak. Confined to his bed for one month following the death of his wife who took her own life following the death of a second son (Georgie Lee) to substance abuse, the champ now fights back. Telling his tale to anyone who will listen and heed his warnings, Chuvalo captivated an audience of Leaside High School students with his tale of losing three sons and a wife to substance abuse April 22 as part of the Empowered Student Partnership (ESP) assembly. "You know drugs are wrong because if you had to make a decision for your younger brother or sister, all you teenagers who are 16 and 17 years old, you can't make those decisions for them. What would you get them into drugs? Smoking? Drinking? What would you do? You know that's wrong," Chuvalo said following the assembly. "If you love and care for them, you should love and care for yourselves. It's common sense. They know when they see Dateline, Sixty Minutes or Forty-Eight Hours on television, they know that those people are messing up. They learn by example so when they see it so often they know. "Even without me here, they know but it makes it easier when I detail some of the things they don't see. I detail about puking their guts out, crapping their pants or someone turning their back on common sense, it's an insane life, it's absolutely insane nobody would ever choose it unless you would figure they would have to be insane to do it." ESP is a joint partnership between participating schools in the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Police Service, ProAction, Cops & Kids, the Canadian Safe School Network and the City of Toronto. Each school must set up a student committee with a staff supervisor (Mitch Curci at Leaside) and then sends one committee member to monthly divisional meetings at their local police divisions in order to help promote safe schools. The committees then conducts a student survey to determine the needs of the students and what issues they need to be most informed of. At Leaside the result was substance or drug abuse, the students then looked through a list of speakers and chose Chuvalo. "We started in October and we've been running through a meeting every week planning this main event in the school and we are running one outside of the school. We are starting to promote a video to advertise against drugs and a video to promote ESP itself," ESP committee member Kalyn Stephenson said following the presentation. "It was amazing because my parents have talked about him and I think his story was really packed with emotion and I hope a lot of students will take a lot from him. Every year I hope we get a new speaker in to promote the fight against drugs. "I can definitely tell you that it pulled a few heartstrings. It's an emotional story. It touched everybody in a way. It can happen to anyone, I can relate to that and see how a normal Ontario family can be torn apart by drugs." - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl