Ex-Baseball Star To Give Substance Abuse Awareness Talk At Middle School This Friday

WILMINGTON, MA — On Friday, April 10, Jeff Allison will be speaking to Grade 8 students at the Wilmington Middle School on the dangers of drugs.

Allison isn’t any ordinary speaker, however.  Allison, a Peabody native, was one of baseball’s best prospects in the country, selected 16th in Major League Baseball’s 2003 draft.  His promising career was derailed, however, due to a heroin addiction.  (Learn more about Allison’s story for this NESN piece and recent Boston Globe article.)

Jeff Allison now coaches and trains young baseball players, and also travels the country to give substance abuse awareness talks to a variety of audiences, including students.

Allison was able to find a few moments this week to answer a couple of questions from Wilmington Apple.

Who from the Middle School reached out to you to schedule the event?  Is this your first talk in Wilmington?  Have you spoken at any other middle school or high schools in the area?
A parent reached out to me to ask if I would come and speak to the Wilmington Middle School students. Her son is a 7th grade student at the school.  I coach him at The Show Baseball Academy in Lawrence. This is my first talk in Wilmington. I’ve previously spoken to middle school students at Medford Middle School and nearby high schools at Peabody, Lowell, Dracut, Lynn Classical, Winthrop, and Westford Academy.

What do you hope to accomplish by speaking to the 8th graders this Friday?  What will your message be?  

My objective is simply to tell my story.  That’s what I do each and every time I speak.  I hope to reach someone in the crowd that is listening who wants and needs the help for themselves, a family member or a loved one.

But when it comes to middle schoolers, the one thing I tend to talk about more would be the temptation once you’re in high school to do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do because you are now in high school.

Once you’re in a high school setting, kids tend to fall into bad habits, doing things differently than they once did.  Some try to be a part of something that will only bring them down and have consequences. Ultimately, I want kids to know my story so that they see they different avenues of negativity and know how to stay away from them based on a simple choice that we ALWAYS have.

Jeff Allison
Jeff Allison

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