Orioles Coach Rick Dempsey warned teens about smokeless tobacco

There’s nothing like a celebrity to get a message through to kids.
At least that’s what Baltimore’s Discovery Resource Center is hoping
with it’s
campaign Challenge 2005.

The campaign is bringing athlete role models like Orioles Coach Rick Dempsey

and other celebrities into Maryland high schools to talk about making responsible,

informed choices when faced with decisions about drinking, smoking, bullying,

overeating, violence, staying in school and more.

“Too many kids today get their moral values from indecent TV shows and
movies,
without proper role models to teach them right from wrong,” said Dempsey,

former catcher for the Orioles and Cleveland Indians, and World Series Most

Valuable Player, who will chair the program.

Speakers will encourage students to do their own research before they make
decisions.
“We are telling them to be smart, to look for information on the Internet,”
said
Joseph Gill, operations director of Discovery Resource Center, a Baltimore
company that provides supplementary educational programs for schools and
communities.
Recently Dempsey spoke to students at a school on the Eastern Shore that had
a
problem with students using smokeless tobacco, Gill explained. Dempsey asked

the crowd if anyone used smokeless tobacco and when a student raised his hand,

Dempsey put him on the spot and asked why. He mentioned several baseball
players who had to undergo surgery to remove parts of their mouths, and then

challenged the student to stop chewing tobacco. He also encouraged the other

students to stay on his case.
“If we had 100 Dempseys, we could really counter a lot of negative stuff
that gets
out there,” Gill said.
The goal of the campaign is to reach 20,000 Maryland students between 14 and

18 this school year.
In the spring, they are planning to bring Ken Carter, who is the subject of
the
movie “Coach Carter,” into schools in Baltimore City. They hope
to line up some
of the actors playing the basketball players as well, he said.
“I think that will make a big impact with high school kids,” Gill
said. “They are young,
hip kids and I think they’ll have a big voice.”
Betsy Stein