Paralympic Skiers come to School

The town of Invermere is doing really well with getting community envolvment with the Rick Hansen relay. I think the word has gotten out and people are starting to get excited about it. I told my pricipal that we wanted to get the schools envovlement and hes really enthusiastic about it. To get the excitement going even more in my school we had an assembly. The assembly was really about the paralympic athletes that will be competing at our local Panorama ski hill in March. I will also be attending this event to give a little speech and collect the bibs at the end of the race, so that will be exciting. Anyway, at school we had a few paralympic skiers there to talk about skiing and what there lives with a disability were like in genral. They were all very inspirig, and for me it was extra special to see a bunch of people with disabilities. I was in my own little world. I went up there and shook there hands and got to know them. One of the skiers that came to talk to us was a man named Josh Dueck. He has turned into a new celebrity from kimberly B.C., which is very cool because that is preety close to where Invermere is. Anyway, a new buzz has gone up about Josh as he is getting to be known for the first person to do a backflip in a sitski. Before this all took place, Josh was a professinal skiier to begin with and he got into an accident on the hill. This left him paralyzed from the waist down. After the tragic shock of the accident and lying in a hospital bed for some time, Josh thought to himself that he didnt want to be held back from the thing he loved to do the mostt, skiing because he was now disabled. With driive and determination, Josh decided to got out on the hills again on a sitski. Not only did he accomplish that but a year ago he also accomplished a back flip in his sitski, something he had been dreaming about doing ever since he was lying in the hospital bed. With tons of support from friends and practise indoors with a slope and a foam pit he masteered the linguistics of the flip. When he finnally got to do it on snow for the first time, everyone went crazy. There was appalse and yelling and laughter and emotion. This amazing stunt made Josh a B.C. hero and put him on youtube where he became a big hit, his video getting lots of views. I was lucky enogh to have met this inspiring man prior to the backflip video , so I was thrilled for him. When Josh came to the school everyone was very excited and wanted to shake his hand and congratulate him. The video was shown whitch made everybody exstatic. They were all so proud of him. However Josh wasn't the only inspiring one at school that day. Four of five other athleetes joined him too. There are not a lot people in wheelchairs or with physical dissabilities in our little town of Invermere, so it was special for me to see disabled people that were sports champions come to our school. I got a picture with Josh Dueck and got to talk to all the other athletes. There was girl there that was born with only one Arm. Her left arm is mechanical. My left arm doesnt work too well, so I am in the same position as her a little bit. I wanted to see if I could get my stubborn "Lefty" to shake her mechanical left hand. It didn't happen but I'm hoing I will see her again to test that out. Anyway, they were all inspiring people that came out. They made us laugh and cry and cheer, and the after they had their presentation, it was my turn. My job was to talk about Rick Hansen and the relay coming up and also the nominations for people to becomme medal bearers. I havent done a speech at my highschool since grade 8, and I had a little stage fright at that one so I was a little nervous t o speak again. However, this time it all worked out. My words came out and I was comfortable and everyone was very supportive of me. The assembly was supposed to be about the skiers but I talked about Rick Hansen on the flip side because it sort of tied it with disabled sports. I gave a bit of a backround on Rick and that he wanted to do another run for Spinal Cord injury reasearch. I talked about how he wanted to get everybodey involved to not only raise money for spinal cord injuries but also to raise awarness to the many diffrent people in our community and to make our communities barrier free. He also wants communities to nominate a person who does make their communitee a better place. D.T.S.S has a spot in the relay for a medal bearer so we said that there would be a box outside the office where kids could nominate people who inspire them, and write there name and a little blub about them on a piece of paper and drop it in a box at the office. Mr. Danuluk and I have to go through the names and pick one. I'm very excited to do that. I love doing that sort of thing. So, like I said before, lots of excitement ahead. I'm will keep you updated. Again one more big thannkyou to Josh Dueck and his team for coming to our school and showing everyone youur stuff. You guys are truly inspirations and role models for everyone to look up too.