NOLAN'S TALK ON DRUGS, ALCOHOL SCORES WITH STUDENTS

Teachers silently tamed a full auditorium speckled with fidgety students
while former Buffalo Sabres coach Ted Nolan talked to them about how
alcohol destroyed the lives of some of his family members and how he
escaped alcohol and drug abuse.

"I know what it's like to be around drugs and alcohol. Four of my brothers
are alcoholics, and I lost my mother in a drunk driving accident," he said
as the young audience gasped.

"If someone asks you to get involved in drugs, what do you say?" he asked
the students.

"No," they said together.

Nolan spoke Wednesday at Native American Magnet School 19 on West Delavan
Avenue as part of the 10th annual Western New York Regional Prevention
Education Conference, sponsored by the Erie County Council for the
Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. Today's session is at Daemen
College.

"We're not going to stop everybody, but we will make a difference with four
or five people," said Nolan, who said he has been active at educational
events for about 20 years.

Nolan said he began running, exercising and investing his energies into his
passions as a way to avoid drugs and alcohol.

"For me, it just happened to be hockey," Nolan said, when telling the
students that personal motivations and aspirations are different for
different people. He told the students not to quit and to keep striving for
their dreams in order to keep their focus away from drugs, alcohol and peer
pressure.

"Valuing Our Differences . . . We Are All Related" was the theme of this
year's conference. According to organizers, that theme reinforced the idea
that drug and alcohol abuse has wide-ranging affects.

"Alcohol and drugs do not discriminate. It crosses all religions, societies
and cultures," said James Frank, a student assistance program coordinator
and prevention counselor.

Dietrich Jacobs, an eighth-grader at Native American Magnet School 19, won
an award for the illustration he designed for the conference brochure.

Dietrich said his picture represented a "day of healing and cures, a day of
happiness and no disease."