Speaker tells students it's OK not to drink

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Students and staff watched with wide eyed interest as motivational speaker Norbert Georget lifted up a body bag. Some of the students gasped as Georget described the mangled bodies that he had to put into bags such as the one he displayed.

According to Georget teenage drunk or drugged driving is the number one killer in North America today. Many young people die each year as drivers, passengers, or innocent people who happen to be on the same road as an impaired driver.

On March 17, Grade 6 to 9 students at St. Basils school in Edmonton, gathered in the school's gymnasium. Is it a lot safer to do drugs and drive than to drink and drive, Georget was asked during the assembly.

From the time he strode to the front of the gymnasium, Georget had the students spell bound while he demonstrated the dangers of driving while using drugs or alcohol.

He stressed that smoking marijuana was just as dangerous to use while driving as it was to have a few drinks. The drug often impairs the nervous system, and affects the brain.

"I am as realistic as I can be. This is what really happens. Most kids think that it won't happen to them, but that is not really true," said Georget.

"Many of the pictures are graphic and gory, but so is reality," he said of the props he uses.

Georget, a former emergency medical technician with a company called M.D. Ambulance Care Ltd. in Saskatoon, is the founder of the Ambulance Student Awareness Program.

The program offers counseling and motivational assemblies to students, parents, and businesses. He started the program as a hobby, but he now travels full time, bringing the message that there is an alternative to booze, drugs and driving.

Georget provides ideas on how to be high on life, how to say no to drugs and alcohol and still keep your friends, and how to plan a drug and alcohol free grad party.

Many students at St. Basils found him very approachable and easy to talk to, and he captured their attention and imaginations. Many rushed to him after the presentation to ask further questions.

"It was great. I learned a lot," said Barbara Dumas from John D'or Prairie, who is a student at the school.

"It was good." said Michael Burns from Prince Albert, Sask., who is a Grade 8 student at St. Basils.