Muenster students got to see a presentation by drummer Mitch Dorge of the Crash Test Dummies on May 12 – yes, he did play the drums, but he wasn’t there for a concert. Instead, he talked to students about the importance of chasing your dreams and making good life choices. He also spoke at schools in Annaheim, Lake Lenore, LeRoy, Quill Lake, and Watson. Dorge has been partnered with The Co-operators since 2007. The organization covers the cost so the presentation is free for the school.
Dorge began doing the presentations in 2002. Initially, the purpose of them was to inspire kids to get into music. The chairperson of Teens Against Drinking and Driving (TADD) approached him after one presentation and asked if he would incorporate an anti-drinking and driving message and then deliver it at a TADD event. Dorge was unsure about it at first, but then started doing research and started getting ideas for how he’d like to present the message.
“Mostly what I found was something that I would not want to see: I saw people talking to kids in a way I would not want to be talked to,” he said.
The presentations he saw seemed condescending, and he wanted to talk to students like an equal. In his presentation in Muenster, he demonstrated to students how different drugs affect the synapses in your brain, and told them to look up information on the effects of drugs themselves and make an informed choice.
“I like the idea that I’m able to bring something to the student body that they’re not used to getting. I love the idea that I can come along and give them a little bit of hope that they can be talked to and treated equally as a peer instead of being condescended to and talked at all the time,” he said.
Instead of talking about what could happen to them if they did drugs, he talked about the effects on those around them – if they were driving impaired they could hurt or kill someone, and how some burn units in hospitals had a slower response time because they were full of meth cooks whose labs had blown up, leaving fewer resources for those in house fires or car accidents.
He also said that if stood at the front and told them if they drank and drove then they would inevitably get into a car accident, what would happen is that maybe in the future one student would get drunk and decide to drive home from a party and he would be fine, leading him to believe that what he was told was overblown.
“I didn’t want to be that guy,” he said; the one who tried to scare students. “I wanted to be frank and straight up and not insult their intelligence. Say that people drink and drive and make it home – but what happens when it doesn’t? Every time you get into a vehicle, you raise the odds.”
Dorge says he hasn’t gotten an unfavourable reaction in the years he’s been doing the presentations, and said that one Muenster student thanked him for speaking to them like human beings.
Prior to discussing drinking and drugs, Dorge told stories from his own life and career; the point he wanted to get across is that now is the time to chase dreams.
“You’re only young once. Everyone has this idea that what I don’t do today, I’ll do tomorrow, but the truth is our life is very very short,” he said. “No one plans to die in a car crash … and before you know it, life is over. I want people to know that if you have an idea … that this is the time to go after it. They don’t have mortgages, kids, etc. At 35 you have a job, kids, mortgage … to take the risk that it takes to go out and chase your dreams … the older you get, the less likely you are to pursue it. I use my career as musician because it’s not something people look at as a career. If you try now and it doesn’t work out, you can go to Plan B. If you start with Plan B, you’ll look back on it with regrets. I want them to take in the possibility that they can achieve their dreams, whatever they might be.”
Dorge has covered a lot of topics in his presentations, and tailors the presentation to the school, but there’s one big thing he wants the students to take away from the talk.
“Bottom line: don’t let other people tell you what you need to be in life. If you have a dream, if you have an idea, you have a concept, go after it with everything that you have,” he said. “However, know that some of the choices that you make along the way can deeply impact your ability to achieve your dream. If you’re going to make a choice which is risky or questionable, research it so that you’re making an informed choice and understand how that choice can impact whatever dream that you’re chasing.”
