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Positive Attitudes Pay Off (2/3/2010)
The Brunswick News, Brunswick, GA
By ERIKA CAPEK
The Brunswick News
Preteens in Brunswick learned valuable life lessons about being healthy and achieving success Tuesday.
“I learned that you can do something that you put your mind to,” said Tacari Demery, 9, a student at Goodyear Elementary School.
That’s the message she took away after Doug Merrill, president of the Power Up Foundation, an organization that promotes better physical and mental health, addressed her and others in the after-school program at Howard Coffin Park.
In his 38 years, Merrill, a former teacher and baseball coach, told his young audience that he has been witness to eight tragedies, all involving friends who are no longer around.
Even though he never mentioned suicide, its prevention - telling students to believe in themselves and to understand their importance in life - was his underlying message.
When Merrill was just 13, a family friend committed suicide. The next two happened when he was 16, when a girlfriend and best friend took their lives. In a period of just six years, he lost several student players to suicide.
Instead of falling victim to those tragedies, he found a higher calling. He is now running from Fenway Park in Boston, a journey that he began this past Oct. 4, to Key West, Fla., which he plans to reach April 2. The six-month run is all in an effort to spread his message of achieving positive mental health through positive physical health.
He will stay in Brunswick until Thursday.
He spent some of his time Tuesday speaking to two groups of students, ages five to 12-years-old at Howard Coffin Park and the Boys and Girls Club.
Students were able to ask questions about his running, like what he drinks and if he gets cramps.
“I learned about running and that you have to drink a lot,” said Zamaria Gasque, 8, of Burroughs-Molette Elementary School. “You’re only supposed to have a little bit of sugar and drink Gatorade.”
Merrill, who is running 13.1 miles each day and resting on Saturdays, spends his time speaking to youth along the way.
“You have to exercise and eat right,” Merrill told students on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle. “Life is about having a good balance.”
Besides being physically healthy, he also told his audience to be their own role models and be accountable for themselves.
“When things go bad in your life, and they will, you have to find another way,” Merrill said. “It’s never the end of the road.”
Merrill has raised more than $20,000 for the Power Up Foundation.
Funds will be used to provide financial support to community programs that promote better physical and mental health.
The Brunswick News
Brunswick, GA [Click to read]
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