"You cannot think it will not happen to you - when you drink and drive, no one wins."

This is what Weyburn teenagers and pre-teens from Grades 7 to 12 were told at the Norbert Georget Smart Youth Power assemblies on Thursday held at the Weyburn Comp School and the Weyburn Junior High School.

To get this point across, motivational speaker Norbert Georget showed several images of car accidents that he had to deal with while serving as a paramedic.

Georget is no longer a paramedic, as he has become a full-time motivational speaker so that he can do whatever he can to convince Canadian teens not to drink and drive.

Drinking and driving was the main topic that Georget addressed to students, telling them, "You would not believe how fast a car accident can happen, you go from 120 to 0 in 3.1 seconds." He commented that on average in Canada a car accident due to drunk driving occurs every five hours and in Saskatchewan it occurs every eight days.

There were moments during the presentation when Georget combined his real-life experiences with video clips; one in particular was a reflection on his rookie year as a paramedic and he was faced with trying to free someone trapped in a burning car after an accident.

He told the crowd that "you do not get people out of the car in time like how you see in movies. The heat is so intense, it is one of the worse things anyone can die from." To relate further how he felt, seeing the man's hands bang on the window to try to escape from the car, Georget showed a very memorable video clip.

The video clip showed four teens after their graduation day who decided to go drinking and then drive. The audience watched as the vehicle rolled, and the teens in the burning car pounded on the window to get out, then seconds later the car exploded. The emergency personnel who were on the scene were unable to do anything but watch the fire. "All you can do is listen to them scream, I will never forget those screams."

"The only thing worse is being at the hospital and seeing the doctors pull the parents of a young teen into a private room to tell them that their son or daughter is dead," said Georget.

It is something that just doesn't affect parents either, as anyone can be killed in an accident, even the person who was not behind the wheel or the people in the other car. This point was driven home hard with pictures of people who were killed by a drunk driver; though he only showed a couple, Georget had a story for each of the faces on the screen.

Even more impacting was the audio clip of an auto accident, where the audience heard the sounds of a drunk teen getting the keys from a friend, getting on the road with that friend, the screams of terror as they hit another car and then a flash of light and a loud thud that ended the whole event.

This audio clip was then followed by a second - of police officers who went to the home of the mother to inform her that she just lost her child in a car accident due to drunk driving.

During his presentation, Georget told students that he has heard many reasons why teens drink, but the truth is that it is psychological and it only makes a person feel good. He wanted them to know that it was okay to be themselves, that "It's OK not to drink." This was a phrase designed by a student who heard his presentation.

Drinking and driving was not the only danger that Georget educated students about, as he also touched on the subject of drug use. Georget warned students that if they are likely to disrespect their body by smoking or drinking, that they are more likely to take the step to doing drugs.

To show the reality of how drug-use affects a person's life, he showed 'Death by Jib', a short film about the effects of crystal meth, the most dangerous drug to become addicted to. Real crystal meth users appeared in this film, showing and telling the truth of how that drug can rot their body, turn their brain to mush and take everything away from them.

Georget warned that crystal meth is not the only drug that is a danger to students, especially since any other drug can be laced with crystal meth so an addiction is formed. Any drug can lead to jail time, make a person sick or lead to death.

Like drinking, Georget wanted students to know that 'It's OK not to do drugs', another phrase designed by students who have heard these presentations. A third phrase recently added was 'It's OK not to smoke', and a fourth to enforce a positive feeling for students is 'It's OK to be me'.

At the end of the day, the most important thing that Georget wanted to leave with students was the fact that "you are not born losers, you are not born winners, you are born choosers," and that they have to make the right choices for their lives.

Georget was very straight-forward telling students the facts and leaving them to decide. He used a variety of methods to present these facts, through pictures, real-life video and audio clips and even showed the audience a body bag that once held a student who heard his presentation.

"There is such a variety of things, each student will remember something different from the presentation," he said.

"It is very real," commented Don Shumlich, CEO of the Weyburn Credit Union. The Credit Union has sponsored this program twice now to educate city students. "There are good images of what can happen through the choices students make and I hope that it can give them something to think about."

This was the fifth time Georget presented his Smart Youth Power to students at the Comprehensive level and the third time presenting to students at the junior high level.