By Staff
EAST LANSING – Continuing its promotion of education as the most effective means of combating the use of controlled substances, as well as making healthy lifestyle choices; the Michigan High School Athletic Association has produced a promotional video on the highly successful ATLAS and ATHENA programs, encouraging their implementation at member schools.
The eight-minute program on DVD is being provided to schools with the generous support of the Association's television partner – FSN Detroit. FSN's Matt Shepard narrates the ATLAS-ATHENA story on the video.
"This video is something that we hope schools will show their leadership to get the approval for the ATLAS and ATHENA programs, and then show it again throughout their community to illustrate how effective the programs are in helping young people make healthy lifestyle choices," said John E. "Jack" Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. "ATLAS and ATHENA are programs which are proven to be effective against a wide range of threats to our youth.
"We're appreciative of the support that our television partner, FSN Detroit, has given to this project," Roberts added. "FSN aired a shorter version of this video during our football and girls basketball finals this fall to help promote ATLAS and ATHENA, and was quick to say yes when asked to help us get more information about these programs out to our schools."
The MHSAA became involved in ATLAS and ATHENA a year ago, when it was one of four state high school athletic/activities associations selected to receive a grant from Sports Illustrated and the Center for Health Promotion Research at the Oregon Health and Science University to educators about the problem of young athletes, drugs and sports an implement the education programs. Four schools were selected to be part of the pilot program – Ironwood, Macomb Lutheran North, Mt. Pleasant and Spring Lake – which took place in the Fall.
The pilot schools in the program were honored at a conference on the ATLAS and ATHENA programs at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit in November.
"The next step is to get additional schools involved, and we think this video will present ATLAS and ATHENA as a viable option for schools in giving their students tools that will serve then as they finish high school and move on to college and beyond," Roberts said. "It's about making healthy choices, and these are programs which are proven to help young people in that regard."
The video can be viewed on the MHSAA Internet Broadcast Network Web site – www.mhsaanetwork.com – and is listed under Featured Broadcasts.