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Sam Sullivan is the mayor of Vancouver, Canada. At the age of 19, he broke his neck in a skiing accident and lost most of the use of all four limbs. He spent nearly seven years after his accident spiraling through despondency and self-pity and ultimately ended up on the verge of suicide. But faced with that final choice--literally with a loaded gun in his mouth--he decided he wanted to live, and from that day forward began to get his emotional house in order. "I decided I would focus on other people and helping them overcome their difficulties," Sullivan told the Boston Globe recently.
He wound up studying business, launching nonprofits to help people with disabilities, and running for city council. Twenty-six years after his accident, Sullivan is now the mayor of the next city to host the Winter Olympics. And as tradition has it, he was in Italy this evening to accept the Olympic flag from the mayor of Torino...and wave it back and forth eight times--from his wheelchair. Certainly a high-profile first for people with disabilities.
Jason McElwain is seventeen and the manager for his local high school basketball team in upstate New York. What happened to him two weeks ago is being dubbed "the sports story of the year" by some in the blogoshphere. Clean-cut, blonde, and extremely personable, he is a special-education student diagnosed as "highly functioning autistic."
A basketball team manager essentially helps out the coach with whatever he needs--"get them motivated, I hand out water, and just be enthusiastic," McElwain explained to a CBS News interviewer. Well, his enthusiasm and long-term commitment to the team won him the opportunity to finally get listed on the active roster and wear the uniform in the team's final regular-season game of his senior year.
With the team winning handily with just four minutes to go, coach Jim Johnson had the opportunity to let McElwain play. His teammates got him the ball, and his first shot missed the basket by about six feet. The excitement in the gymnasium quickly turned to anxiety, but apparently McElwain was just warming up. His second shot was better--off the rim. His third shot rattled in for three points, and the crowd erupted in cheers--but McElwain was just getting started. In those four minutes of playing time, he tied a school record for three-pointers in a game and wound up scoring 20 points. His last shot went in as the final buzzer sounded, and he was mobbed by what seemed like the whole student body. He said he's used to feeling different, but "never this different...never this wonderful." Check out the news report for the amazing game footage.
All this made me think back to a recent story out of Serbia that was covered by OneWorld Southeast Europe. Not the same drama, but an empowering story nonetheless. Here's an excerpt:
For the Children on Their Own
Five families, wanting to provide something more for their children than sitting at home and visits to the therapists, decided to open a daycare centre of their own. They rented an apartment in downtown Belgrade and share the costs...