Minto Clifford Public School celebrated five years of social activism by staff and students with a visit from a man who embodies the spirit of the movement.
Spencer West of the Free the Children Speakers Bureau shared his inspirational story at an assembly marking the school’s milestone as a We Act school on May 20.
The event was organized by Free the Children and the Me to We leaders of Minto-Clifford to recognize the dedication to social justice the school, the Me to We team and the greater Minto community has exhibited over the last five years.
Staff and students at the school participate regularly in a variety of awareness campaigns and fundraising activities, including coin drives, used book sales and candy cane sales. The school has a core group of 20 to 30 students who function as the Me to We leadership team. They meet weekly to discuss social justice issues, plan events, write morning announcements, speak at assemblies and more.
“Why did I devote so much time, effort, and passion into this organization for five years? Simply put, my experience with Me to We truly began to shape who I am,” said recent graduate Shaelyn Thompson, who returned to the school for the celebration.
In the last five years, the school has completed a number of projects through the Adopt a Village program, including providing funds for clean water and sanitation in Haiti, education in Kenya, alternative income in India, and this year health care in rural China.
The school acts locally as well, running coin drives, collecting donations for the local food banks, holding monthly bullying awareness days, winter clothing drives, local visits to nursing homes and other activities. Principal Shelley Grose told the Advertiser the visit from West was arranged in recognition of the work of Minto-Clifford students and staff, coordinated by We Act teacher Naomi McCulloch. McCulloch and several students were featured on the cover of Free The Children’s Be the Teacher: Who Changes the World brochure distributed on the We Day 2013-14 circuit. At We Day Waterloo 2012, regional sponsor Blackberry (RIM) honoured McCulloch as a teacher who inspires her students to “Be the Change.”
McCullough said the school has raised about $20,000 since taking up the We Act banner. The May 20 assembly included a presentation of $5,000 raised so far this year to West and Free the Children officials.
West was born in Wyoming, West Virginia. He had both legs amputated below the knee at age two, due to a muscular disease. By the time he was five, doctors decided surgical removal of the remainder of his legs up to the pelvis was necessary. “After my surgeries my family were told by the doctors that I would never sit up by myself, that I would never walk by myself and that I probably wouldn’t be a functioning member of society, which is basically a way of saying that I would live at home and my parents would have to take care of me for the rest of my life. But my family and I refused to believe this so we set out to prove to not only ourselves, but the rest of the world that I could be just like everybody else.”
Rather than let the world defeat him, West, who today lives in his own apartment in Toronto, tackled challenges like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro using his hands and wheelchair in 2012. In 2013, he trekked from Edmonton to Calgary (a 300 kilometre journey) on his hands and in his wheelchair. West has travelled the world, speaking to audiences of all kinds from students to corporate groups.
In school, West said, he faced constant bullying.
“One student in particular thought it was funny when I was going down the hall to grab the back of my wheelchair so I would stop abruptly. My books would fall on the floor and then I would tumble out after them,” he said
“In gym class every single day I had to watch two team captains pick every single other person to be on their team until I was the only one left and then someone would finally pick me, but not because they wanted me on their team, but because they had to.”
That experience didn’t stop West from becoming involved in student athletics in high school, where he joined the cheerleading team. Still, he had to overcome doubters, including a teacher who told him “this isn’t a disabled team.”
“I chose to stop caring about what other people thought, I did cheerleading for me and not only did I enjoy it but, it turns out, I was actually pretty good at it. We went to the state championships that year, where I’m pretty proud to say that we took first place. So not only was I a student athlete, I was a state championship athlete as well.”
West challenged students to make everyone feel included in their school.
“Its up to us, every single day, to make sure everybody feels welcome in our school and everybody feels like they’re safe and they belong here.” He also congratulated the entire school community for their charitable efforts.
“On behalf of myself and Free the Children we just wanted to send a huge sincere thank you for all the work that you’ve done and we wanted to make sure that you know that we see the work you are doing. We are so proud of you.”
