Paramedic speaker ig gets point across by Harriett Fjaagesund Terrace and Thornhill youth got a first-hand look’ at the conse- quences of drinking’ and driving last week when internationally known speaker Norbert Georget (sponsored by ICBC) gave a lec- ture and slide presentation at Thomhill Junior Secondary and at Caledonia Senior Secondary schools. An advanced EMT-paramedic with over 10 years experience, Georget (pronounced Jorjay) is one of the busiest and most sought- after speakers in Canada. Since 1984 when he founded the Ambu- lance Student Awareness Program (A.S.A.P.) he has spoken to over 200,000 students in more than 500 high schools across Canada and the U.S. Georget started his career with M.D. Ambulance Care in Saska- toon, Saskatchewan as an advanced medical technician-paramedic. He first began A.S.A. as a hobby on his days off, but it soon turned into a full-time commitment. The rea- son for his success with young people is that he speaks their language. He talks hard and fast and doesn’t gloss over the truth. He tells it like it is. One woman who is familiar with Gorget’s tactics for reaching youth remarked that adults sometimes ~ don’t quite know how to take him. "Some adults find him’ irritating, probably because he talks and moves fast, but that’s how kids talk today, and the kids are listen- . ing to him. He’s getting his mess- age across." After introducing himself, Georget begins his lecture by dishing out some cold, hard facts. "There’s a quarter million people in Saskatoon. Sometimes you " (paramedic teams) see 35 people die in one day. In Vancouver there are 790 ambulance/paramedic calls each day. In Toronto there are 1,000 each day. In horror movies you see people ripped apart; it happens in real life, too. "When you see a dead body it’s not like a slab of meat lying there, it’s a human being. When you're driving and you cross that yellow line you have a 50-50 chance of being killed or killing someone else. The police aren’t the bad guys, they’re out there to prevent you from committing a crime, but if you're in an accident the police won’t come and pick you up... we will." Georget explains that you don’t have to be driving the vehicle; passengers face the same odds as the driver. "If you're going to drink and drive, don’t take a friend with you. You might kill them. You can also be trapped in a vehicle after an accident. That can be pretty bad. Or even worse, you might be bumed; that’s the worst imaginable thing that can happen to you, being burned." He adds that four-wheeled vehicles and motorcycles aren’t the only vehicles involved in fatal collisions, that a lot of 13- and 14- year-olds arc killed each year while riding dirt bikes. "Suicides are even worse. How are you supposed to tell someone that you can’t do anything for their son or daughter, that they’re dead. IE you’re dead tonight, how are your parents going to handle it? "I remember when we got a call from a parent whose teenage son had overdosed on marijuana and PCP (angel dust); he wanted us to take his soni to the hospital, to do something to save him, but there wasn’t anything we could do, the kid had already been dead three or four hours. How do you explain ; that to a parent?" Georget's collection of slides showed accident victims in graphic detail, including a body that had been burned beyond recognition, and a body inside a morgue locker. He asked that there be no jokes or snickers, quietly explaining that relatives of the victims had given him permission to use the pictures in the hopes that they would pre- vent someone else’s death. "J’m amazed at the way we adults suck you kids in." He points to a picture of a dead body on the § screen, "Beer commercials, there’s lots of beer commercials, they tell you all these wonderful things about beer, but they don’t tell you | about this. Drinking advertisements are glamorous, but you don’t see the other side of it. Peer pressure is a big factor in drinking, but not everyone has peer pressure. One in five teens across Canada has a potential for an alcohol problem. "Say no. Leaving is one of the. best ways to get out of a situation. Just walk away. Would you accept someone at a party who didn’t drink? Why do you drink? Because everyone else does it? Not true; lots of people don’t drink (or use drugs). It’s okay not to drink. "How do you keep a drunk from driving? Be dirty. If you can’t get the car keys then go under the hood and pull the plugs, or take out the battery, or take the tires off, or whatever it takes to keep them from driving." Georget then brought out a black body bag. "This is where we put you, They cost $160 cach and usually we use them only once. I put one of my students in this bag two years ago." He held up the body bag for inspection before adding, “If you're going to go out drinking I want you to do three things first: Tum on your porch light so the police can find your house, fill out your (organ) donor’s card, and kiss your mom. | "We're not bom winners and we're not born losers, we’re born choosers. The choice is yours. I can’t convince all of you, but I’ve got to try. I believe in what I'm talking about." The Drinking and Driving CounterAttack kids at Thornhill Junior Secondary made these col- lective comments after the lecture. "Yeah, he makes a difference. He talks to us on our level, he doesn’t preach. If I were going to drink and drive... I'd stop and think about it. I really would." Thornhill CounterAttack students, N _ losers, we're born choosers. The choice is yours. Se gt. 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