Hundreds of students and community members gathered at St. Jerome’s School on February 5, for encouraging presentations by speaker, Tyler Durman. “I am so excited that students chose to be here when buses weren’t running, and thank you to Principal Chase for helping to make it possible,” said teacher, Allan MacMillan. Durman is originally from California, but has spent most of his life in Hawaii. Keeping audience members engaged, Durman began with K – 5 participating in a game-show like presentation, learning about choices. “We all make choices everyday; if you make a choice you have to live with the result; just because it looks good doesn’t mean it is good; sometimes the crowd is wrong; if you don’t know what to choose ask a teacher what to do; one bad choice doesn’t mean two,” were some of the phrases that Durman used to encourage children to think about their choices throughout each day, and to stand up for themselves. He went on to speak to higher grade levels, and parents in the evening incorporating storytelling and humour. Overall, everyone was thrilled to learn positive coping skills and tools for building and maintaining healthy relationships. “I was so excited to have Tyler here and the messages that he brought were ones that children and parents need to hear. His dynamic speaking had a room full of elementary students in the palm of his hand, and his strength increases with high school aged students and parents,” said MacMillan.