By Chelsea Royer
Former NBA player Chris Herren had his entire career in front of him. With sports recruiters coming to watch him play beginning in his freshman year in high school, Herren didn’t know how to cope with the pressure. He turned to drugs and alcohol during his high-school career. What began with alcohol and marijuana turned into cocaine, oxycontin, and heroin in college and during his NBA career. The “guy on the poster” turned into an addict spending $25,000 a month on pills. He overdosed while driving, requiring the paramedics to bring him back to life.
After a month in rehab, Herren went home to witness the birth of his third child and wound up back on drugs and temporarily losing his family. From the brink of suicide and hopeless addiction, Herren got down on his knees to pray and checked himself back into a treatment center in New York. A fourteen-year addiction had cost him his finances, his family, and his career.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end here. Herren completed his treatment successfully. Once sober, Herren began sharing his story with high school students, hoping to spare them the same fate he had suffered. At one assembly, a young lady in the front row – one of four teens wearing purple shirts – stood up to thank him for validating her mission. The four kids wore purple shirts to represent their commitment to staying sober. The assembly of students laughed at this young woman, to the dismay of Herren. The bravery of this girl sparked the idea for Project Purple, an initiative designed to “break the stigma of addiction, bring awareness to the dangers of substance abuse, and encourage positive decision making to navigate life’s challenges.” (Source: Project Purple)
Project Purple began with a bang as hundreds of thousands of kids from all over the United States signed up for this initiative. Proudly, we have our own chapter of Project Purple at Hoquiam High School where Izzy Chavez leads a prevention program called GPS: The Grizzly Prevention Squad. With ten to fifteen regular members, Izzy heads up awareness projects, assembly seminars and speeches, and prevention classes. Last year, he did most of the work himself. This year, his prevention minions are ever eager to share the load.
Students Rylee, Madison, and Julie are three of the most dedicated to the GPS club. “I just thought it was a great idea to get the word out,” Rylee explains his reasons for joining. “To help prevent kids from wasting their lives but also help those already into substance abuse know they have a way out.”
The GPS team was deeply moved by Herren’s story of abuse. The wasted potential of someone who seemed to “have it all” brings home the seriousness of any kind of substance abuse. “Students feel alone when they commit to stay sober,” says Chavez. “They tend to think ‘everyone is doing it’ but they aren’t. The group here gives a community of sober kids a place to talk about being clean and to toss around ideas on how to encourage others to do the same.”
GPS implemented Project Purple at a recent basketball game. With 300 purple t-shirts donated from sponsors, GPS hosted a table with a sobriety pledge for students to sign, t-shirts to give away, and pamphlets to hand out to parents.
“I learned a lot from Herren,” says Madison. “I realized that drugs can affect your life immediately…even if you just try them once. If you get hooked, you have to try more and more in order to get that same high. The Project Purple video was the most inspiring film I’ve watched in class.”
“I’ve seen some great leadership in the kids – they are proud to be sober and clean and want to share that with others. And really, you have to be comfortable with yourself to be able to take a stand like that,” says Izzy of his students. He is proud of all the kids willing to participate in the program while the students say of him, “Chavez is awesome!”
Getting or staying clean from substance abuse is something to be applauded, not something to mock. With social norms campaigns, awareness projects, and students who are proud of taking a stand for something, the Grizzly Prevention Squad members at Hoquiam High School are eager to make a difference and help shift the trends of teen addiction.
You can show your support by donating, sponsoring the club, or submitting prevention ideas to the GPS team. Contact Izzy Chavez for more information.
