WOODSTOCK
From that kid who incessantly used the headrest in front of him as a drum and his dad’s head as cymbals, to the expectant dad visualizing his child’s future, to the excited band member who just had to deplane and touch ground during an emergency stopover in Russia, Mitch Dorge shared snippets of his life with Hernewood Intermediate School students.
“I’m one of the happiest and luckiest guys you’ll meet,” he told the students. His life has him doing two of the things he loves, playing drums and interacting with people. “I’m living the dream,” he said.
Dorge’s presentations to school groups coast-to-coast is sponsored by The Co-operators. Throughout most of his presentation, Dorge’s drum set is behind him in the gymnasium, untouched, but it’s clear they are not just there as a prop.
He involves his audience in his presentation, all the while leading them to a message about making informed choices.
Along the way he calls three students forward and invites them to use their hands and laps to play drum. They’re not totally in sync, but it’s entertaining. Then he adds to the number up front and also gets all the students in the stands clapping and stomping their feet. The mood is jovial and upbeat.
The students are motivated to participate and give their all.If everybody gave 100 per cent all the time, he tells his audience, most of the world’s problems would be solved.
“He’s a funny guy,” assessed Grade 8 student Madison Annand, who suggested the message Dorge shared will be discussed and remembered by her schoolmates.
Focusing his message on making the right choices, he used his line of students up front as neurons in the brain, showing how messages the neurons try to pass along are impacted by drugs.
He also told of Jackie Saburido, a young woman who was seriously burned after the car she was a passenger in collided with a vehicle being driven by a drunk driver. Two other people in the car with Saburido were killed and she was injured and trapped. Before she could be cut free, the car burst into flames. She lost her nose, ears, lips, one of her eyelids, her fingers and much of her vision to the fire and has endured more than 120 reconstructive surgeries.
Annand suggested Jackie’s story will stick with her. “I think everybody should know about it,” she said.
“He’s just a great guy with lots of advice,” said Grade 9 student Zach Biggar who felt Dorge had the student body well engaged. “He really had the crowd this time. They were all into it with him.” Biggar said the advice he takes from the presentation is “Live your life out to the most you can live it to. Be the best you can be.”
“This is a natural energy. It’s just me every day,” Dorge said of the presentations he takes to schools from late September to early December and from mid-February to June every school year.
And those drums? The former drummer for the Crash Test Dummies has his audience in awe as he lets loose near the end of his presentation.
He says the students arrive expecting a lecture, but he chooses to get them laughing and having fun. “I want them to know I’m a little crazier than they are,” Dorge says of the lead-up to his message.
“I’m not trying to be an authority. I want them to know I’m here to have fun.”
Grade 9 student, Reece Williams said she takes this from the presentation: “Just don’t do drugs, be a positive person.”
“It was a good message, I think, especially for young people,” Williams reflected.
