The Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use (MTF) has a new website and it features a blog with an RSS feed, natch.
MTF is a co-sponsor of tonight’s presentation at the Northfield High School auditorium titled Pure Performance: The impact of alcohol or drug use on athletic performance by John Underwood, President and Founder of the American Athletic Institute.
Listen to the audio of KYMN’s Jeff Johnson interviewing Northfield High School Activities Director Tom Graupmann and Northfield Police Chief Mark Taylor last week about the program. Graupmann and Taylor also had a commentary in the Aug. 14 Nfld News titled Pure performance: A message for Northfield.
The Brent Setterstrom Memorial Fund is providing financial support for the event. Brent graduated from Northfield High School in 1994 and died last December. His obituary Guest Book is still online where "You may leave your condolences or share memories…"
Did anyone attend this event last night… and have some comments on how it went?
Griff, I attended the 3 pm session and the evening meeting.
The 3 pm session was mainly for the athletes. About 600 attended. It seemed to me that they listened really attentively to Underwood’s message. I think that after Underwood listed his credentials–including training five Olympic medalists–his words had some real authority. He focused mainly on the detrimental affects of alcohol and marijuana on athletic performance.
The evening event which was open to all–but had mostly parents there, had probably 250 attendees. Underwood had more time for his presentation. In addition to the physiological information he presented in the earlier event, he talked about safety–including stories of deaths from alcohol toxicity and automobile accidents. Patti McDonald also spoke. She is the parent from Lakeville who brought the program there. She believes that after three years, the program is making a real difference.
KYMN radio’s Jeff Johnson interviewed Underwood and McDonald yesterday–and they can explain this program better than I:
http://kymnradio.net/archives/2257