Santa Maria, CA

This is a city of about 100,000 that we have had difficulty getting funding for Outreaches but the need and appreciation for being there is very high.  My Team Captain, Shane Keeling, has done what he could even though he just went through a divorce and changed his occupation from minister to restaurant owner. Shane has always done a great job of getting us in front of the city through the news paper. See the following comment from one of the teachers and the news paper article.

Importance to Teacher Dory Rodgers:

Nicole Grady, my Associate, received a call from Dory Rodgers, Teacher, that attended an assembly at Tommie Kunst Junior High School in Santa Maria. She was so impressed by the impact of the talk from Michael Cobb it literally changed the behavior of her class. She wanted to know if we could continue to touch her academically at risk group of students, with a speaker like Mr. Cobb more regularly. She just didn’t want to lose that impact and it just be left as a memory.    [Tommie Kunst Junior High School, Dory Rodgers (English teacher), 805-361-5832, drodgers@smbsd.net]

Video & article from Santa Maria Times:

Relatehttp://santamariatimes.com/news/local/education/former-nfl-player-motivates-students/article_19a0e5b8-1b27-11e1-b2e1-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=videod Video

Former NFL tight end Michael Cobb speaks Tuesday to students at Adam Elementary School about the importance of morals, values, education and proper decision making.

Len Wood/Staff

Adam Elementary students struggled to imagine how former NFL tight end Michael Cobb could ever have been bullied as a kid. At 6-foot-5 and more than 200 pounds, Cobb towered above the fifth- and sixth-grade students gathered Tuesday in the cafeteria of the Santa Maria school.  Not exactly an easy target for the typical bully. “I wasn’t always big, tough,” Cobb said, recalling a time in fourth grade when he tried running home after school to avoid being beaten up. The experience, which ended with Cobb getting into his first and final fight, taught him that sometimes people must face their fears to overcome a tricky situation.

“Drugs and alcohol are chasing every one of you,” said Cobb, who has traveled the country for 27 years as a motivational speaker for Sports World. “Ladies and gentleman, it’s going to take courage.  “Don’t just say ‘no’. Say never. You’ve got to be really careful who you listen to.”  Cobb told stories of life growing up in Akron, Ohio, with his mother and a stepfather he has learned to treat with the utmost respect after his biological father left Cobb at a young age.

While he spoke, students held onto Cobb’s playing card that detailed his career being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1977, playing for the Chicago Bears from 1977 to 1981, and playing for the Michigan Panthers in the former United States Football League during the 1983 and 1984 seasons.

Students chanted or repeated Cobb’s sayings on cue, including “hard head and a stubborn heart.” Football is cool, he said, but the point of him leading three assemblies for third- through sixth-graders at Adam on Tuesday was to reiterate everything kids have already heard about the value of education, good decision-making and trustworthy friends.

“Because you’ve heard it does not necessarily mean you’ll act on it,” Cobb said. “You’ve got to stop and listen to the right voices.” He also encouraged kids to hug their parents, and to listen to them and their teachers because they know what they’re talking about.

Sixth-grader Bernard Olivares joined Cobb at the front of the cafeteria to explain that a commitment is a promise to oneself. Afterward, Bernard said he enjoyed Cobb’s stories because they help teach people to make better life choices.

Copyright 2012 Santa Maria Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

San Carlos, AZ

Dennis Norton has been working with the Indian Tribes in eastern Arizona and New Mexico to encourage the students to make better decisions. In the past two years approximately 25 students have committed suicide in Thoreau, NM a town of less than 2,000 people.  Dennis has gone out of his way to see every Pro we got to Gallup or Grants, NM had an opportunity to speak to students in this city.

In his testimony on suicide prevention among Native American youth before the Indian Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate in 2005, then U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona stated:

The suicide rate for 5- to 14-year-olds is 2.6 times higher than the national average.
The suicide rate for youth age 15 to 24 years is 3.5 times the national average.
Young people age 15 to 24 make up 40% of all suicides in “Indian Country.
There are many more nonfatal injuries due to suicidal behavior than there are suicides.
It is estimated that there are 13 nonfatal events for every fatality. (Carmona, 2005)

The national statistics gain impact when examined on a smaller scale.

In Thoreau, New Mexico, a community of 2,100 people on the Navajo Nation, which spans part of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, lost six children to suicide over a 2-month period beginning in April of 2010. (“Suicides Put Spotlight,” 2010)

In the 4,500-member Mescalero Apache Nation, also in New Mexico, six young people committed suicide in a 5-month period at the start of the 2009-2010 school year (Daly, 2010).

In 2009, 11 children from the Standing Rock Lakota Reservation of North and South Dakota completed suicide, prompting U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to sponsor 7th Generation Promise: Indian Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2009 (S. 1635). In the text of the bill, Senator Dorgan notes that the suicide rates for Native Americans age 15 to 24, compared with other racial groups, are as follows:

For males, the suicide rate is up to 4 times greater.
For females, it is up to 11 times greater.
Females attempt suicide 2 to 3 times more often than males. (Dorgan, 2009)

Dr. Simms from the San Carlos, AZ Wellness Center applied for a grant to help with this academic problem.  She has agreed to work with Sports World because of the good we have been doing in the local schools.

Funding in this area has been low until now.  We are excited that San Carlos will have a fully funded Outreach this year.  I appreciate that Dennis Norton has persisted to getting our Pros in front of the Apache students so Dr. Simms and other leaders could observe the value for their students.

Spring Outreaches for Region 6