In a nutshell, he's a pretty amazing guy, not only for his tenacity and athleticism, but for what he's doing with his life to 'shine the light back on the disabled community - to show that if you take the time to look, you might be surprised'.
The lecture was very intimate - Chris sitting in his wheelchair on a black stage, no microphone. There were probably 75 of us in the audience, almost half being kids ranging in age from 3 to 18. Chris spoke for the first 30 minutes, discussing 'nametags', the assumptions and labels we give to disabled/handicapped/physically challenged individuals and his plans to make the first unassisted summit, by a paraplegic, of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in March of 2009.
After the first 30 minutes, he opened it up to questions. One of the neatest things to experience was listening to all of the kids asking questions. They had no barriers, no societal baggage, no "Ooh, even though I'm thinking it, I'd better not ask it because it may not be polite or hurt his feelings" holding them back. The questions asked by the kids ranged from "Are you ever scared", to "Do you really think you can climb that mountain", to "Who are your heroes" to "Do you ever wish you could walk again". Then there was Sam. He and a friend had asked to sit in the front row so they could see and hear better. When I saw him raise his hand to ask a question, I braced myself for what was to come next. Sam's question -
"What if you get attacked by a mountain lion?"
OK then! Gotta hand it to him. It was a question in his mind and he decided to ask it. Chris chuckled a bit and then answered that he probably had a better chance of getting attacked by a mountain lion here in the Utah mountains than on Mt. Kilimanjaro.
After the lecture, Sam asked if we could go meet Chris and shake his hand. As we were walking towards Chris, Sam said after he shook his hands, he was never going to wash them again. On our way home I asked the boys what they learned. Sam said to always believe in yourself and Jack said not to judge other people. It was a great lesson for the kids, I'm really glad that we took them.
Chris has a website and a blog where you can not only read about him and keep up to date on his progress as his climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro gets closer, but also see him in action ski racing and climbing. You can also find a link to an interview he did with one of the local news stations here.
