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4- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, November 19, 1996 - Canadian fighter George Chuvalo makes a point during his stop last week in Port Perry. His hard-hitting talk targets kids, and drugs. By Heather McCrae Special to The Port Perry Star EORGE CHUVALO, Canada's most hallowed fighter and the Canadian heavyweight cham- pion from 1958 to 1961, is now facing a bigger battle than he ever had in the ring. The 59-year-old boxing legend is on a cru- sade to teach young people about the perils of drugs. In a staggering chain of events, Mr. Chuvalo lost three - of his sons - Jesse, Georgie and Steven - to drugs. And his wife, Lynne ended her life with an overdose of pills. Since then he's been on a campaign to teach young people inschools, detention centres-and jails across the country about the horrors of drug use. Last month he spoke to the students asneridge Secondary School in Pickering, When Port Perry High School principal Sandra Riches heard about the impact he had on those stud- ents she invited Mr. Chuvalo to come to the school. Last Tuesday he spoke to two separate assemblies, painting a stark picture of how drugs can destroy families. After Mr. Chuvalo's wife died in 1993, Torento Municipal councillor Steve Ellis contacted him, ask- ing if he'd visit schools in Huntsville where his brother-in-law was a principal and talk about the drug abuse that took its toll on his family. "So I went and talked to the kids. I had no film or video with me, just talked to the kids," Mr. Chuvalo said. "I was emotionally charged after that first talk." Since then Mr. Chuvalo has made a video about his life, and it's always part of his presentation. His good friend, Marvin Elkind, 62, almost always accom- panied Chuvalo on these talks. Ashort, rotund man with a wide warm smile, Mr. Elkind was with his friend in Port Perry. Before his talk last week, Mr. Chuvalo showed a tape about his life and his career in the boxing ring, which was long before any in the young audience was born. And each time he sees and hears his three boys talk on the video it rips at his heart, bringing the gentle giant to tears once more. No amount of pommeling in the boxing ring ever produced this kind of pain. He shows the tape to give the kids a better sense of and their teachers, bringing many to tear when they heard about _ | thedestruction d brought to his life. ing operation, docto gave Jesse Tylenol 3 fo the pain. But one ni ght at a party, he met Y someone who said he' give him something » take the pain away forever. : "What he gave my son was heroin," Chuvalo said. And er,Jesseintroduced Georgie and Steven to the drug, too. SL In 1985 Jesse, then 20, shot himselfinthe head after losinga " nine-month battle with heroin. Although it was years later, Georgie and Steven 'both died after overdosing on heroin, too. Georgie died in 1993 at age 30 and Steven, 35, died this summer. Their mother took her own life two days after ; Georgie's death, unable to bear the agony of losing two sons. "My wife was so crushed about another son's death to. drugs, she lay down on Georgie's bed, swalloweda handful of pills and died on his bed," Chuvalo said, quietly. ih "You never heal after the death of a child," he said,