Speaking Event: Rick Hansen Foundation School Program in Scarborough Recap

Yesterday, I did my first Rick Hansen Foundation school program presentations for kindergarten - grade 3s and grade 4-8s. I'd never spoken to in-person youth audiences before (aside from doing my first RHFSP presentation to an all-girls high school last week), so I was a little nervous, but it was so sweet!

In my talks for high school students and adults, I always use my "the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" reference, which I love for explaining my 33% physical strength.

For the elementary school talks, I realized I could bring back a reference I used in my first-ever Speaker Slam speech, that I'm kind of like a video game character where the health/strength bar above their head is at 33% instead of 100%. The video game character looks the same with their full strength bar as they do when their strength goes down, but you're more careful about what they do before they need to rest or recharge.

I got both groups to say "YAY!" all together and a few of them to tell me their daily yays, and one girl in grade 2 or 3 asked how I got so confident talking about my disability, which was so cute. But a true highlight was another grade 1 or 2 girl saying, in response to my question about one thing they learned that day, "I learned I'm not the only one with a disability." 🥹🥹🥹

HEART. WARMED. 🥰

That thought wasn't something that ever entered my mind at that age. So, so glad that I now have the opportunity to be some of the representation that I wish I'd had myself 💖