Pro BMX racer spreads addiction awareness on Delmarva
As many local officials have said, tackling the heroin and opioid epidemic will take a community approach to bring people together, especially young ones.
That’s what brought a professional BMX racer Tony Hoffman to Delmarva this week, to share his personal story, including his struggles with addiction.
Speaking to hundreds of students Wednesday at James M. Bennett High School, the California native racer talked about his life: The early BMX success as a teenager, the recent success coaching other athletes through his non-profit camps, and a lot about what happened in between.
And it’s a story he shares in a refreshingly candid manner, telling high schoolers the truth about the choices he made.
Hoffman says his addictions to a number of drugs – including prescription opioids, methamphetamine, and alcohol – led him to commit armed robbery, and eventually to a two-year prison sentence.
But what Hoffman isn’t willing to do is talk down to people, especially kids.
“This isn’t a ‘don’t do drugs’ speech. I’m not here to tell you not to use drugs. I’m here to tell you a life story. And these are the choices that I made in my life. This is how I thought in my life. This is the attitude I had in my life,” Hoffman told 47 ABC.
In prison, Hoffman says he changed his attitude, realizing that he was the product of his choices.
He exercised every day and vowed to once again be a pro racer, but he added another goal: starting a non-profit using BMX as a way to teach about living drug-free.
Despite other people’s doubts, he did it, and now takes a realistic and personal approach to drug education, aimed at preparing kids for choices that they will encounter.
Hoffman stresses that addiction is a disease that does not play favorites, as we know locally.
Local hospitals saw more overdoses in the first three months of this year than in all of 2015, and it’s estimated that 87% of the crime in Wicomico County is directly connected to those who are addicted.
Hoffman’s candid sharing of his story is part of what made him an attractive speaker in terms of the county’s “three-pronged” effort to stem addiction.
“Law enforcement, the intervention, and then prevention [are the three prongs]. This is the prevention piece, trying to get another generation of teens to stay away from prescription pills and stay away from heroin,” says Matt Maciarello, Wicomico County State’s Attorney.
For Hoffman, the message is simple: Life is about choices and attitudes.
As he told students Wednesday, “Be careful what you do, because what you do becomes a habit. And be careful what you make a habit, because your habit becomes your character.”
