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The student news site of Atlantic High School

AHSneedle

The student news site of Atlantic High School

AHSneedle

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AHS JOURNALISM GOLD SPONSOR

Milton Creagh inspires students to live drug-free

by Alyssa Askeland

Milton Creagh grew up around drugs and alcohol and the difficulties that resulted from substance abuse.  Creagh felt so strongly about the issue that he wanted to reach out to students to prevent drug and alcohol abuse.

“[I told my father years ago] that I wanted to be a singer,” says Creagh. His father knew that Creagh didn’t have the voice to be successful in that career. Instead, his father gave him a set of tapes with famous speeches such as Adam Clayton Powell, a congressman from New York.  Creagh began to memorize the speeches and was asked to recite them at schools and churches.

When he graduated, Creagh worked for the First National Bank of Chicago. After six months he attained a job with Southern Bell Telephone Company and headed to Florida to start his new career.

Eventually he began working at Florida A&M School of Business and Industry.  He later started his own company where he spoke about drugs and alcohol to high school students and professional athletic teams.

When asked how it feels to be the center of attention, Creagh stated, “It feels weird, but good.  It is a challenge each day.”

Some people are harder to speak to than others, so Creagh tries to be funny at first and connect with the audience. “I like the challenge,” he said.

Creagh believes that there will always be a student who needs to hear the message he has to say.  Creagh spoke about a high school student who was a waitress at a restaurant he ate at in Omaha, Nebraska.  One of her co-workers said he changed her life, giving her the courage to tell somebody about the hardships in her life. “Working with a team is a job, but working with kids is a passion,” said Creagh.

As a parent, Creagh has four children, two of whom are adopted. “My kids are very fortunate,” says Creagh, “I have carried them so much {that they are the ones kids go to}.”

Milton said in his speech on Thursday, Oct. 14 at Atlantic High School, that 77% of all drug users are not children but adults, thus leading to many of the broken families in the United States. Another statistic mentioned was that 85% of all people in state prisons are there for drugs and/or alcohol related crimes.

Creagh hopes to lower the statistics by speaking to people all across America and with his new CD which features Jay Z and many other chart-toppers.

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