17Aug2018

Orrin will live on Good Day Alabama. Fox News. 8:05am CST / 9:05am EST live

From 8:05 CST / 9:05 EST

At WBRC

BIRMINGHAM, AL—On Friday, Aug. 17, noted youth mentor and anti-violence and peace activist Orrin “Checkmate” Hudson will be live on WBRC's Good Day Alabama (8:05 CST / 9:05 EST). He will be promoting his free chess workshop with students in the Avondale Housing Project at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park Recreation Center, 529 43rd St. North. Birmingham AL

As the new school year kicks off, Hudson will inspire students and parents students to get on the right track and stay on it. The session will outline specific strategies that help students think before they make dangerous moves. In the workshop, Hudson teaches students to have respect for others, to give more than they take and that every move has a consequence. His goal is leadership, to instill achievement, to defy the odds.

Growing up as an inner-city youth in Birmingham, Alabama, Hudson gained an inside perspective on the population he seeks to uplift. As a youth, Hudson was involved in petty crime, gangs and drugs. A chance encounter with a compassionate teacher who taught him the fundamentals of chess changed his life.

Stepping up and out of the inner city, Hudson studied chess and became the first African American to win the Birmingham chess championship. He later went on to serve in the U.S. Air Force as well as an Alabama State Trooper. Upon hearing of a tragic and senseless robbery perpetrated by black youths, Hudson decided to help — as he himself had once been helped — and founded a non-profit organization: Be Someone (www.BeSomeone.org).

Hudson has been awarded the prestigious FBI Director’s Community Leader Award, and since the year 2000, his program has brought 61,000 students the life-affirming message of “Peace, Positivity, and Purpose.”

 Hudson’s life-changing message to urban youth is:
* Get Your Heads Up!
* Get Your Pants Up!
* Get Your Grades Up!
* and Never Give Up!

Hudson says his goal is to reach at least 1 million students with his life-changing messages.

Hudson was dubbed the “pied piper of positivity” by CNN for coaching his students to a statewide chess championship and three citywide chess championships.

At his upcoming workshop, Hudson will teach a new currency to young people called KASH (Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits), and show them how it can change their lives for the better.