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_'-T1"iiii.iii'I'iii:i,, CifAiiiilsr_)i'ii; Born In Jamacla. Johnson has a learning disability, and was subject to numerous school transfers while 1n elementary school, but that was a bad dream ago and u-dav Ls eyes are open to his early childhood problems He admns that he didn't have somebody back then to A Kitchener-Waterloo CI student, Johnson's lec- tures are part of hrs co-op program at the school Considered an elite athlete, they use his tune for tralmng as pan of [us CWOP placement, "T0 we that type of thing makes me feel good and makes me want to do more for the kids, That's why i'm soyegyed to dqthmgs llke thu mth the school kids" As a tighter. I work mth kids too, but tt was remarkable the way Laws could relate mth these Kris," Johnson sald. YeL they say with age comes w1sdom and he wondered what would become of hun if hrs boxmg career ended short as a result of an Injury UI or out of the ring" What then? Those thoughts prompted hun to take hold of hrs me. make a few changes for the better and spread the word - according to Chris Johnson. to get mmeone's attention Recently. he spoke to students at Waterloo's MacGregor Pubhc School and made qulte an Impression when he talked about setting goals, behevmg m yourself and the drug problems of [May’s youth A close friend of professional boxer Lennox Lewis, Johnson was Inspired to work with the youth after watching Lewis work with klds at the Kitchener Buung Club to be J profsewonal boxer there would be su p;;day; dyad 1n the rmg maybe Today. Johnson IS taking all of his past negative feelmgs about school and applying them m a positive way Being Canada's and the British Commonwealth's amateur tmddle-werght champion, Johnson knows how In hxs crruth, thrs 19-ytrar-old, Who had been trans 'r'l'l't‘d from one elementary school to another for one rstctrum or another. has seen more downs than ups HI the vducaturru " stem A boxer fur the past 11 years. he knows what iightrng fur um wul, 15 all about From gmng hp to the teachers in s'1h,rhtuu,r m the school yard. Johnson has seen or done " All He admits that he was "Mr Cool" at school and swung an education was aNke After all, he was going 'rC't'"ti'; "u _ r"-r. V ' ' BOB GRAY 'i'ts4:Fj: ?rd. P-s, V Ir, v T _ 'i2',i.ici'iii,:Cs, T MUSIC LTD. 'ill-tiii," ; __", y, _ T J ' _ V umamumm magi wwwmssswi‘wwéf 'js"':?:',?,)) ':ji?',i5iFF, 'jf, ' s.-"-:"-' " Pete Cudhea C'voncle Stay L'hm Johnson admus that he wasn't a model ,tudent PAGE A8 t WATERLOO CHRONOCLE, WEDNESDAY. APRIL 17, 1991 WORD cr/lil ACCORDING TO CHRIS Since 1974 WORLD iijlllji Whirlpools, Saunas we! Tubs "We have to realize that there are a lot of bad things that the kids are open to m this world, but laughter Is a key to vanish that, even if It'SJust for a little while. ifl can make somebody laugh, even if it'sjust for a second, I feel much better and so do they." He approaches lus hour-long lectures With the calmness of a boxer, bobbing and weaving from one subject to the next, And, there's nothing boring about his approach. Johnson knows how to keep the kids attention by slipping into a Bill Cosby-like character or into a Nacho King' Randy Savage-like character to convey his message, He admitted that someday, after his boxmg career is over. he'd like to pursue an acting or broadcasting career Holdmg a plece of paper on which a MacGregor student wrote a small story about him, Johnson gets the feelmg that m some way, he's making a difference, The response from the kids has been "tremendous" says Johnson, who added that this IS what it's all about "There are ttmes when I go to a shopping mall there will be a lud come up and say 'There's Chris Johnson, he came to our school and he talked to us about this and that,' you feel so good to know that there are kids who listened and learned what you sand "The thmg [do ls I try to watch all the kids and I see tf they're paying attention or not. Knowing that they're listening makes me feel tremendous. Hearing their laughter IS also a great feeling, tell to him to stay away from drugs, stay in school and to stop fighting He hopes that the kldS he talks to in hm lectures Will listen and learn, “One of the biggest problems with kids in this age group is low self esteem, A lot of kids don't believe in themselves, Many kids come from broken homes and they keep a lot of their problems on the inside, Many don't have anyone to talk to at home, so they take the anger and bitterness they have on the inside and take it out on the teachers or something else, like drugs or crime “I want to give the luds a chance to rescue themselves from that type of situation, If they do have problems, there are a lot people with the mil to help, and if more and more people would get Involved and let these ktds know that they are there, then tomorrow would be a better world to live in." "I'm trymg m use myself now to help other kids to gnu them what I didn't have, Chris Johnson hams it up with Grade 8 student Jessica Yamoah during a lecture Waterloo's MacGregor Public School. ' THE NEWS LARGEST SHOWROOM . 41 Models on Display . From 8659 NOW ON SALE! Mouse at Cedar 210 Regina St. N., Waterloo 88 885-1711 at