Over the past two decades, Bob
Anastas (the founder and former executive director of Students
Against Driving Drunk-SADD) has risen to national prominence
as a speaker, educator and author. Today, through his program,
"Check In To A Winning Life," he brings to both
parents and students a timely, motivational message on how
young people can develop responsible attitudes and make smart
choices about the many challenges they face.
A former college All-American football and hockey
player, Massachusetts high school teacher of the year, and
coach, Anastas faced a tragedy in the summer of 1981 that
profoundly changed the course of his life. Within four days,
two star athletes on his high school hockey team were killed
in separate drunk driving crashes. Their deaths prompted Anastas
to start a new health program for sophomores at the Massachusetts
school where he taught.
After only one week into the course, Anastas
recognized that his typical approach - reciting powerful statistics
on the consequences of underage drinking and drunk driving-was
not getting through. The students already knew the facts,
but were still making illegal and risky choices and, in some
cases, they were dying.
Out of frustration, Anastas turned to the students
themselves for help. "I don't know how to do this,"
he told them. "I need your help. What I have been doing
has failed." Together, Anastas and the students began
to tackle the problem.
 "We
began to see the problem as a box in which students are trapped,"
Anastas said. "One wall of the box is made up of the
kids' desire to preserve their parents' perfect image of them.
The second wall is created by peer pressure-the pressure to
go along with what the students perceive as socially acceptable,
high-risk behavior. The third wall is comprised of simple
innocence and naiveté-despite the statistics, kids
don't fully comprehend their own mortality. And the final
wall is built by a lack of communication between children
and parents.
From this concept was born SADD, or Students
Against Driving Drunk. The program engaged students and parents
in a joint commitment to help each other, to call on one another,
to break down the walls of "the box." Today, recognizing
that students face many other challenges and decisions beyond
those about underage drinking and drunk driving, Anastas has
initiated a new and separate program, an evolution of his
core message, expanded to address the broader subject of responsible
decision-making.
"Drinking illegally and driving drunk are
just two forms of high-risk behavior students exhibit - two
symptoms of a deeper cause," Anastas said. "That
cause is rooted in declining life skills of self-discipline,
self-esteem, motivation, maturity, and leadership."
The "Check In To A Winning Life" program
covers these issues-motivating students, teachers and parents
to broaden their understanding of risk-taking behavior and
to forcefully address it.
Anastas is a member of the Board of Directors
of the National Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism
and Drug Dependency, and was the recipient of the Massachusetts
Teacher of the Year Award and the National Commission Against
Drunk Driving Humanitarian Award, among others. A television
movie dramatizing his life broadcast on both CBS and HBO,
and he has addressed more than two million students in thousands
of high schools and colleges throughout the country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Check In To A Winning Life” provides
an umbrella program under which existing organizations, such
as student councils, can work together to meet common goals.
Bob Anastas is available to speak to:
- Parent-Teacher Groups
— A 30-minute presentation, with 30-minute Q&A
session. Recommended for groups of 25-50; conducted on the
evening prior to the student presentation.
- Student Assemblies
— A 45-minute presentation (one class period). Recommended
for assemblies of 400-plus at either the high school or
college levels.
- Student Athletes
— An optional 45-minute presentation to the student
assembly, tailored specifically to young and aspiring high
school and college athletes.
This program is also available on video.
|
