GREEN SPEAKS TO WORCESTER STATE STUDENT-ATHLETES

Worcester, MA, Feb. 20, 2008 -  On Wednesday, February 20, student-athletes at Worcester State congregated in a campus lecture hall to hear Mike Green speak to them regarding the usage of alcohol on college campuses.  Green makes over 100 presentations a year to colleges and universities across the country including Penn State, Florida State, Boston College and BrownUniversity among others.  Green did not use a preaching or moral tone when making his presentation but instead uses a humorous interactive method to not only show the affects of alcohol usage in their life in a way that helped them see the forest from the trees.

He made the Worcester State student-athletes feel at ease and delineates between alcoholism and drinking problems from "One Night Problems". Green began the program by asking everyone in the room how many people have had a problem with alcohol.  One person raised their hand.  He then proceeded to ask questions such as: have you ever fallen down, gone to
the hospital, vomited, etc.  Most of the room raised their hand.  He then asked again, how many people have had a problem with alcohol and the majority of the hands were raised.  Green's use of the phrase "One Night Problem" resonated when he noted that 98% of the people in this
room will not be alcoholics.  He proceeded to tell a tale of an athlete who broke his arm in a game, got drunk that night and while lamenting the fact that he had a broken arm and was out for the year in a 5th floor lounge slammed the cast against a window so hard that he fell out
of it and died.  He concluded that the player was not an alcoholic, but that "One Night Problem" can be just as bad.

Green offered some sobering tales about his previous drinking habits and what they cost him as well as some that he has encountered over the past 20 years or so that he has been speaking to young people.  He covered things as elementary as the amount of alcohol in certain drinks to the affects that alcohol has on sexual behavior.  He offers advice on things such as how to hold a glass so as to protect it from being spikes to "spotting" and never leaving a friend behind in an intoxicated state. He ponders such thing as the language that motorists have created in flashing high beams to notify others that there is an officer up ahead but can't figure out why we can't get keys away from intoxicated friends.

The program lasted just under an hour but received rave reviews for students and administrators alike.  Freshman Erin Moore remarked, "His use of real-life stories really gets your attention showing us that even drinking for one night can be very dangerous".