Presenting The Dare to be Different Diverse Ability History Project in schools... finally!!!!

 Hello, everyone! I have a very exciting update for you! In my first blog entry, I shared with you a YouTube video of the ShawTV ``Valley Profile '' about my life. There is a segment in it where I talk about my school inclusion  project called, “Dare to be Different”, where I go into schools, and deliver inclusion workshops about people with diverse abilities. I am proud to say that as of December 13th, my Count Me In business partner Crisanna MacLeod  and I completed  the first phase of that project! It feels  so good to be done!  It has been three long years of hard  work to get to this point. I do not think I have ever committed to a project for that long before! Crisanna and I were definitely in it for the long haul, but it is worth it! 

Let me tell you how this amazing project started.

From a very young age, I have always wanted to do something where I would be giving back to people who have diverse abilities, like myself, and make a difference in their lives; the way so many people have made significant differences in mine. As a kid, I  wanted to be an Educational Assistant in schools, but as I grew, I realized that some aspects of that job would be difficult for me to do physically, so I thought maybe I could still work in the field of inclusive education, somewhere in the background. Then, I came up with the idea of doing inclusion workshops in schools. The youth these days are getting so much education about, and do so much advocating for different minority groups, but they don’t get educated on people who have diverse abilities. When I was in school, I did not have too many other friends my age. It was hard to connect with them, and I felt like if they knew more about people who have diverse abilities, friendships with them might be easier to build.

 I am also so grateful to every person who has helped make me the person I am today and I am always wanting to do something that gives other people with diverse abilities the confidence like the kind  that was given to me to help me be comfortable in my own skin, the courage to try new things, as well as passion messages of how important kindness and gratitude is, and how far your will get when you are willing to accept help, and work with others. 

Crisanna says that my enthusiasm for working in schools, and promoting inclusion was contagious from the start! She jumped on this rollercoaster of a ride with me right away, and was as anxious as I was to make my dream a reality. Crisanna has done many professional presentations before, and has a mind for business. I  have learned so much from her, and am so fortunate to have found someone who took this dream of mine  seriously. 

Crisanna and I did so much work before we finally brought the “Dare to be Different High School   History Project'' into schools. A lot of it revolved around Crisanna helping me figure  out why doing “Dare to be Different” is something I personally had to do.  Crisanna called it my  “heart work” . I loved talking to her about my passion for teaching people about inclusion, and we did a lot of  fun exercises that helped me dig deeper into what that was. All of those exercises helped us come up with the ''Dare to be Different'' mission statement, which is, “Count Me In with a confident, honest voice, inspiring new action based on inclusion, love, and respect for all people in all places”.

I had always envisioned doing inclusion workshops in schools as a type of career for me. Because “Count Me In”  is a business created by myself and Crisanna, we both get paid by grants. In order to apply for those grants, we have to be under an umbrella organization. That was probably one of our hardest parts of starting  Dare to be Different; finding a non for profit business willing to be our umbrella organization.  Either they weren’t the right fit, or they had other commitments. After some reaching out on Facebook, Pete Bourke, of The Columbia Valley Chamber of Commerce, sent me a message saying he loved the idea of “Count Me In”, and was willing to let The Chamber be our umbrella organization. Crisanna and I were so excited! Without Pete, and The Chamber, Dare to be Different wouldn’t happen. Pete was our superhero and Crisanna and will always be so grateful to him!

Before we started presenting in schools, we did a big “rehearsal presentation'' at our local church for family, friends and  Invermere community members to watch and give feedback on my project. A local band, “Smarty Pants' ', made up of two men, Bill Cropper and Kurt Riechel, had made up a melody to a theme song I wrote for “Count Me In”. They are so creative, and really took that project on and, and made it their own. They do many live concerts in town, and, now, as part of every performance they give in Invermere,  they play my “Count Me In” song, which warms my heart and makes me feel like a celebrity!  We made the song fully inclusive by learning sign language to sign along with the lyrics.

. As  I mentioned before, Crisanna has a lot of experience with professional presentations, and was able to give me a lot of help with “presentation excellence” .  We put a lot of time in before our rehearsal  presentation, practicing speaking. Days before the rehearsal, Bill Cropper gave me some tips on professional speaking on using the microphone. 

Rehearsal presentation day came, and it was wonderful. We were very grateful to The Windermere Valley Shared Ministry Church for letting us use their building as a venue to hold the presentation in. Crisanna and I started the day off with a big hug, telling ourselves that we did it!  I was so grateful to my mom and my aunt for helping Crisanna and I set up the day before the presentation, baking treats, and running back and forth to do errands  I invited many people in the valley to my presentation, in person, and through Zoom, and many came; even our mayor!  I got a little emotional watching all the people coming into the church because they wanted to support “Dare to be Different” . They really thought I could do this, and  took my dream seriously. When the presentation was over, I felt I had support to bring my project into the SD6 schools, and that all of my friends truly believed I could make my dream a reality.

The first School District #6 school I presented my Dare to be Different Diverse Ability History Project in, was, ofcourse, the highschool I  graduated from, David Thompson Secondary School in Invermere l. There is something to be said about graduating from a school, and coming back as a presenter and an educator. It feels pretty powerful! I even presented it to the law 12  class of a favorite teacher of mine! What a way to start?! The  teacher was so supportive of me. He wanted to make sure everything was ready for me, and wanted me to feel completely comfortable presenting to his class. It also feels wonderful showing your highschool teachers, and the students how far you have come since  graduating. After my presentation to DTSS, the teacher definitely wanted to somehow include people who have diverse abilities in part of his teachings . I am grateful to my aunt, and very good friend, Anne for helping me set up that day, for encouraging me, and for helping the presentation go so well. That was a great day. There was one presentation down, two more to go.

We were very fortunate to have the endorsement of School District #6’s Directors of Instruction. We worked with three of them. The first one, Jennifer Turner, introduced us to the learning assistants teachers and educational assistants. That was very special for me, because a few of the teachers there who helped me were in the audience, and I got to show them that I can work hard, and commit to a dream I had talked about when I was young. I always want to thank people who have helped me in my life, and one of my favorite ways to do that is to show how far I have come after receiving so much support. 

After Jennifer, we worked with Viveka Johnson, who wrote a letter of endorsement, introducing me to the School District #6 schools, and, near the very end of The History Project, we met another Director of Instruction, Sharon Collin, who came on board Dare to be Different at a very crucial time; when we were trying to complete our agreement to The Columbia Basin Trust grant, and do each of the three highschoos.  The grant was due by the beginning of December, so we were in a crunch. Crisanna and I went to meet Sharon at the School District Board Office. Her and I connected right away, and I let her know about our timeline, and that we needed help connecting  to Golden Secondary and Selkirk Secondary schools, in School District #6.. Sharon seemed to catch our passion for what we were doing, and was determined to help us meet our  deadline. Soon after we had our meeting, she contacted teachers in both schools, and, before we knew it, Crisanna and I had dates we had to be in Kimberley, and in Golden.

Presenting  “Dare to be Different” to a class of a teacher that I  once had was a good way for me  to test the waters. The teacher knew me and was able to give me truthful feedback on if this presentation would work for a highschool class. It is one thing if someone who knows you  tells you that what you're doing will have a positive impact on students, and another if a stranger says the same thing! 

Both Selkirk Secondary and Golden Secondary schools were also great successes. In Selkirk Secondary, I presented to a leadership class and in Golden Secondary, presented to another Law class. The class in Selkirk was incredibly enthusiastic. I was impressed! They asked great questions and I had some students come up to me later, curious about how they could make their communities more  inclusive for people who have diverse abilities, and talking about wanting to work in some type of human service work field, and being really interested in how they could be inclusive to all people in their work. That, by itself, made me feel as though I accomplished my goal of Dare to be Different. I reached someone; a young person! I started the conversation. 

In Golden Secondary School, presented to another Law class . The teacher has a family member who has Cerebral Palsy, which helped us make an instant connection, and really helped him get really involved in the presentation, giving his take on many topics Ii talked to his class about. . It’s always special when I make a connection like that, and, in this case, it enhances my presentation by making it even more personal. 

Well, I could say that I achieved my dream of helping enhance inclusion in schools, but, honestly, I am only at the beginning. Crisanna and I have our work cut out for us, for sure! What I will say though, is that one of the biggest lessons I have learned from doing “Dare to be Different”, just like one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my life with CP, is that you really can’t accomplish much on your own. You can  come up with great ideas, but it takes a team working with you to turn those ideas into reality.. I could not have done “Dare to be Different” without someone like my good friend, and business mentor, Crisanna. I started talking to her a long time ago about my vision for more inclusive schools, and how I wanted to be a part of the work it takes to get there. Crisanna says that my passion to do that was so contagious; like catching a good kind of flu, and she just had to be part of it. Thank you, Crisanna, for making my dream become your dream, for all your business and professional presenter advice you gave me, and for being a cheerleader for me doing this project and making sure it could be the best it could be. Thank you to my family, as well, for all their support, especially for your encouragement to keep pushing through when the work got really tough. Thank you to Pete Bourke, who, as I said above, was our superhero, when it came to being an umbrella organization, Thankyou to all our funders for believing “Dare to be Different” was a cause worth supporting; Fairmont and District Lions Club(Shirley White), We Connect(Mount Nelson Place: Donna Jefferson) and The Kinsmen Club of Windermere. Thank you SmartyPants and Carol Pope(she taught Crisanna and I sign language, so we could sign along to our "Count Me In" song; as well as Justin Woodman for being our videographer for a music video of the “Count Me In”. Thank you to the teachers and all the SD6 staff for getting Dare to be Different into high school history classes. It's amazing! When  I reached out for help, sometimes  I wasn’t sure if I would get a response, but every time I did, I received so much encouragement and support.  I am truly grateful for everyone who helped make “Dare to be Different '' possible. It goes to show that, if you put in the work, dreams really can come true!