Visit from Motivational Speaker - Reggie Dabbs - 25th March 2011
On Friday 25th March 2011 we had the pleasure of welcoming Reggie Dabbs back to our academy to speak to all our year 8s and 9s.
It is a couple of years since Reggie last visited, but so many year 10 and 11 students wanted to see him again that many of them gave up their lunch time to come up to the hall.
Reggie is from Miami in Florida, USA and is the No.1 motivational speaker in America. He has travelled the world with his speeches to encourage young people that ‘there is a good future for everyone, no matter what your background or upbringing was like’.
He has even been into high security prisons in America to speak to prisoners on life sentences to help them turn their lives around. Reggie talked about his life and how at the age of 8 his mum and dad explained they were not his real parents.
He was brutally honest when explaining that his birth mother gave him up to be adopted because he was an accident and she couldn’t afford him. He was raised by his birth-mother’s favourite teacher, who already had 5 children, but gave him the love and self-belief that made him the man he is today.
All the students were mesmerized by this man’s stories and some of them were openly emotional. Reggie told them that “if it wasn’t for that teacher, I would not be here talking to you” and he thanked all the teachers that were in the room.
As well as a great speaker, Reggie is also a professional Saxophone player and he played a few tunes and got the students and staff to sing along and wave their hands about. The students really enjoyed this and all of them took part.
We look forward to the return of Reggie Dabbs. His message is directed at those who have doubts about themselves or how valuable their life is. Every one of his words is full of the Christian belief that we all have a purpose and all our lives are valuable.