DRUG AWARENESS: BOXER SHARES STORY OF FAMILY SHATTERED BY
DRUGS

George Chuvalo could take punch after punch from Mohammad Ali without
falling, but he lost the battle to save his sons from drug addiction.
He told Langley students about the tragic lessons he learned.

It took seven seconds for Steven Chuvalo to die of a heroin overdose
in his sister's apartment on Aug 17, 1996.

He did not even have time to light the cigarette he held in his
hand.

Steven's father, famous Canadian boxer George Chuvalo, spent an hour
on Wednesday morning telling H.D. Stafford students about the deaths
of three of his sons, Steven, Jesse, and George Lee, all heroin
addicts, and his first wife Lynn.

In detail, Chuvalo described the effects heroin addiction has had on
his family.

His youngest son, Jesse, shot himself in 1985; George Lee and Steven
died of overdoses; Lynn overdosed on pills her sons had stolen two
days after George Lee's funeral in 1993.

"My sons would be so desperate for heroin that they would defecate in
their drawers," he said.

He described coming home to discover his wife's body in Jesse's bed,
"her face black and blue, badly swollen, holding his ashes."

He described telling Steven his mother was dead and watching him run
screaming out into the street.

In a video on Chuvalo's life, which ran before he spoke, his oldest
and only surviving son Mitch said his brothers were dead the day they
began taking heroin.

Chuvalo never went down in the boxing ring, even when he fought
Muhammad Ali, but he could not win the fight against the drugs that
ruled three of his sons.

"None of my sons could beat drugs," said Chuvalo. "If he [Steven] had
a glimpse of the future, he never would have become a dope addict,"
Chuvalo said.

One day Chuvalo lent his car to Steven and George Lee for an hour;
when they returned, he found the trunk full of stolen drugs.

"They had robbed three pharmacies in 45 minutes," said
Chuvalo.

Both received two years in prison.

"My son [Steven] wanted to talk to young people about experimenting
with drugs," Chuvalo told the students.

But Steven died wearing nothing but his underpants and a needle in his
arm 30 days before he and Chuvalo were supposed to make their first
presentation.

"Doing drugs is like hating yourself," Chuvalo said.

He told the students, "All of you beautiful young people will someday
be parents and grandparents. You owe it to your future children and
grandchildren to make the right choices."

Chuvalo said love is the key to making the right decisions.

"If it wasn't for love," he said, "I would not have survived my own
personal family holocaust."

"What I would like to see you do when you go home to your parents is
hold them and kiss them and tell them you love them," he said.

While waiting to get Chuvalo's autograph, Stafford student Doug
Bennett said, "I have a lot of respect for a man who lost most of his
family and is still standing."

The Stafford student showed their respect by giving Chuvalo a standing
ovation, with feet pounding.