‘Basketball Junkie’ Herren kicks off Project Purple in Ocean City

Last Updated on Thursday, January 24, 2013 01:41 pm Written by Claire Lowe Wednesday, January 23, 2013 02:02 pm

Claire Lowe / Chris Herren, surrounded by Ocean City School District faculty members, cuts a purple ribbon, symbolizing the kick-off to the Project Purple campaign at both Ocean City and St. Augustine Prep high schools.

OCEAN CITY — It was a sea of purple in the bleachers, and it didn’t matter what team they were rooting for at Tuesday’s high school basketball game, everyone was cheering for Project Purple.

The anticipated start to the Ocean City School District’s Project Purple campaign was attended by many, including its founder, former NBA player Chris Herren.

Herren, of Fall River, Mass., a former NBA player who lost his career as he overcame his own battle with addiction, got sober in 2008. Since then, he has dedicated time to helping others with their own addictions.

The Herren Project, developed to assist families struggling with addiction, was started in 2011 after the release of Herren’s memoir, “Basketball Junkie.”

A year later came Project Purple, founded on April 24, 2012 after a trip to speak in a Hatboro-Horsham, Pa. school. Herren said that during the visit, a 16-year-old student in the front row stood up and thanked him for speaking to them that day, noting that she and her friends in purple T-shirts were the sober students of the school. Herren said that some in the crowd began to laugh at the student, but she admitted that she is a recovering heroin addict. He said the girl told him that she started doing heroin with her parents at 10 years old, inspiring him to help put a stop to the culture of drug abuse in teenagers.

When the Ocean City Education Foundation welcomed Herren to speak to students and parents about drug abuse at Ocean City High School last April, President Dave Allegretto didn’t know the impact the speech would have.

“We had him here a year ago. The response was just so overwhelming,” Allegretto said Tuesday.

The education foundation wanted to find a way to implement an ongoing anti-drug message.

“We had to figure out a way to keep it front of mind,” he said.

Having Herren start a local Project Purple campaign at the school seemed like a good approach, so Herren was invited to the boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep for the halftime kick-off event. Posters were hung throughout the halls, purple streamers strung across the ceiling, and attendees were given complimentary Project Purple T-shirts, made available by a grant from the Ocean City Home Bank Foundation.

Project Purple encourages students to be “true to themselves, celebrate life and support one another.” 

During halftime, Allegretto introduced Herren, who spoke to the crowd about how Project Purple started and why it was important. Then Herren, surrounded by Ocean City School District faculty members, cut a purple ribbon, symbolizing the kick-off to the campaign at both Ocean City and St. Augustine Prep high schools. Hope Bromhead and Courtney Keenan, seniors at Ocean City High School, presented Herren with a $1,000 donation to his Herren Project organization.

After halftime, Herren met with faculty and administrators to discuss ways they can continue to incorporate Project Purple into the schools.

 “For me, I guess, in my travels … there’s just a need. There’s a need for kids to have something to identify with,” Herren said of the campaign.

He said that for high school students, the pressure to drink and try drugs really hits hard junior year.

“My junior year, I really had no choice,” he said, relaying a story of how a friend’s parent would allow him and his friends to drink in the basement. “To me, that’s tragic.

“My goal with this is basically to reverse peer pressure,” he said. “From my vantage point, I see the need, I hear the stories.”

Herren said the statistics on drug use are staggering, quoting that 2,000 kids will pop a pill for the first time in a single day.

“The more schools I speak at, that’s the culture, popping pills,” he said, adding that most kids he knew that started popping pills eventually turned to heroin.

He said it’s also important for kids to hear the message earlier than they used to. Herren said now more than ever there is more pressure on students to be popular and smart, and too many new drugs to try.

“They’re on the fast track,” he said. “The culture has to change.”

A major point of the conversation focused on getting parents involved , and getting them to acknowledge when their child has a problem. Some in the room agreed that parents who condone drinking and partying, as long as it’s under their roof, aren’t doing their children any favors.

Older organizations designed to keep students away from drugs and alcohol aren’t as effective, Herren said. He said that the founder of SADD once told him that kids who are on the fence about doing drugs and drinking don’t find their way to SADD. Instead, it’s the kids who already are against drugs and drinking that join, as a booster to a resume or college application.

Project Purple is trying to reach kids in a more modern way: The organization has developed an Apple and Android app.

Next up are purple-colored water bottles. Herren said the effort is to “create an identity.”

“I think we’re still communicating with kids a message from the 1980s,” Ocean City High School Principal Matthew Jamison said, referring to the posters and videos that are often used to communicate an anti-drug campaign in the schools.

Jamison said it was uplifting to hear that Herren’s organization is trying new approaches to reach students.

Herren said there is also an issue with the way that addicts are branded to students.

“As a society, we’ve branded addiction very poorly,” he said, referring to a poster of a 30- or 40-something in a hoodie with his life falling apart. Herren said addicts come in all ages and from all backgrounds.

Herren said he and all of his friends all came from respectable backgrounds before they started using.

“I was 18 years old. I bumped into a line of cocaine in a dorm room and it took me 14 years to get away,” Herren said.

Herren said there is one question he asks that always stuns students: “What is it about yourself on a Friday night that you can’t just be you?”

After the basketball game, Herren stayed to talk to students and parents about Project Purple.

Allegretto said that the education foundation specifically invited the seventh and eighth graders at Ocean City Intermediate School to participate in Tuesday’s kick-off. He said that he imagines the program would continue to reach down to intermediate school students, as well.

Claire Lowe / Ocean City Intermediate School students, eighth-grader Matthew Edwards, seventh-grader Christa Michel, and eighth-graders Madison Kitchen and Sarah Lucey hand out Project Purple T-shirts Tuesday evening.

Claire Lowe / These Ocean City Intermediate School students are excited for the kick-off of Project Purple.

Claire Lowe / The Ocean City High School girls basketball team is ready to support the boys team Tuesday against St. Augustine Prep, coinciding with the kick-off of Project Purple.

Claire Lowe / Special guest Chris Herren salutes the flag as the national anthem is sung.

Claire Lowe / Ocean City Councilman Antwan McClellan, Ocean City Education Foundation member Joe Ney and Chris Herren watch the basketball game.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Claire Lowe / Former NBA player and recovered drug addict Chris Herren kicks off Project Purple, an anti-drug campaign, at Ocean City High School's boys basketball game against St. Augustine Prep Tuesday, Jan. 22.

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