CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman County Schools hosted its second annual Student Expo at Temple Baptist Church Wednesday and all of the school system’s ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade students were there to participate. After hosting the Hilinski’s Hope Foundation at the inaugural event last year, motivational speaker Tony Hoffman was invited to share his story with the students this year.
From tonyhoffmanspeaking.com,
“On December 13th, 2008, Tony Hoffman was paroled by the California Department of Corrections after serving a two-year sentence for a drug-related robbery. While incarcerated, Tony set four goals: Race BMX professionally, go to the Olympics, start a non-profit called the Freewheel Project, and become a professional mental health and substance abuse speaker.
During his senior year at Clovis High School, he was featured on the cover of BMXer Magazine, and was sponsored by Fox Racing, Spy Sunglasses and Airwalk Shoes. On the surface, Tony’s path seemed destined for stardom. However, in reality, Tony experienced crippling anxiety, depression and suicidal ideations. Tony’s substance use began during his senior year, leading to the deterioration of his mental health and opioid addiction soon followed. Due to his misuse of Oxycontin, & other drugs a life of addiction, crime, homelessness and incarceration became his reality.
Since parolling prison, Tony has tirelessly worked towards achieving his goals and the dreams he’d set out for while incarcerated. He raced BMX professionally for several years and continued on to coach Brooke Crain to a 4th place finish at the Rio Olympic Games, accomplishing his dream of going to the Olympics. The Freewheel Project was very successful for many years helping thousands of youth through action sports before moving on to pursuing a very demanding national speaking career. Today Tony is an author, an owner of pH Wellness drug and alcohol treatment facility, and one of the world’s most requested mental health and substance use speakers.”
Before Hoffman took the stage, students heard a brief message from Cullman County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shane Barnette.
“Today is all about pouring into you guys and we want you to know how much you’re loved. If you ever doubt that for a second, all you have to do is reach out to one of us adults and we’ll tell you how much we love you and how much we care for you,” Barnette said. “We want to help you be successful and build you up. That’s what today is all about.”
The students also heard about some of the modern dangers that they could face on social media from Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Investigatory Ryan Fortenberry before the event’s keynote speaker, Hoffman, began his presentation. Hoffman shared his own story with the students, hoping to provide valuable life lessons and help them avoid some of the same mistakes he made.
“At 41 years old, I’ve learned that one of the most effective ways for us to learn as human beings is through people’s life stories, because people’s life stories give us an opportunity to listen to somebody’s experiences. And anytime someone has an experience, whether its good, bad or indifferent, they have to use tools to get through it. We’re all going to need tools at some point in our life. I don’t know everything, but I do know this, every single one of you, including the adults in this room, you’ve got to go through something,” Hoffman said. “And when you’re going through it, it’s going to get real dark. You’re going to lose hope and have a lot of doubts and fears and might even lose people that are close to you and in that moment, you need a tool. That tool is going to help you get from that dark moment to the best days of your life. And I can promise you this, if you just listen while I tell my story, each and every one of you is going to get a tool from it. I don’t know you’re going to use it five minutes from now or 15 years from now, the only thing I know is if you don’t make the same mistake I did when I was your age, you will leave here with a tool, and that’s why I came.”
To Learn more about Hoffman’s story and his work, visit www.tonyhoffmanspeaking.com.
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