By Phil Perry
Times Staff
2/11/10
Roy has done this before, though, and knows how to put his audience at ease. He pressed a button on the armrest of his wheelchair.
“My chair does this thing that’s pretty cool. It might help me be able to see more of you,” Roy said to the crowd.
The button lifted the base of his chair at least a foot higher than where he previously sat. The students, fifth- through eighth-graders who had yet to be born when Roy had his accident, were clearly impressed by this ride.
“I bet you guys wish you could grow that fast,” said Roy with a smile.
The students, teachers and friends of the school relaxed in their metal folding chairs, for their speaker was a positive attitude personified.
There was more laughter when Roy made the room promise not to tell anyone his first pair of skates given to him by his dad when he was 20 months old were, in fact, figure skates. There were smiles when Roy promised he could kick the students’ butts in a sitting competition.
But as Roy exuded optimism, his speech carried a serious message catered toward his young audience: It’s important to set goals and write them down. Roy wasn’t able to check off his goals of making the NHL or a U.S. Olympic Team but he relayed the satisfaction he felt when he was able to check off his goal of making a Division 1 hockey team and playing in his first game as a freshman.
He spoke about the importance of showing love and fighting whatever middle school awkwardness kept them from telling special people in their lives how they felt. The first thing Roy said he would do when – not if – he gets out of his chair would be to hug his mother.
Unwavering in the fact that there would be a cure for paralysis eventually, he was more cautious when talking about said cure’s timetable after the assembly.
“It’s a little disappointing we’re not further ahead,” said Roy, who told the crowd earlier that 14 years ago, he thought he’d be out of his chair by this point. “There are all different kinds of stem cells, and I have to be honest with you, I don’t care which ones they use. But at this point I’d like to give them all the tools, and if embryonic stem cells are more potent and have more potential, then let’s not rule them out quite yet.”
The Travis Roy Foundation, which Roy manages, helps people with spinal cord injuries and their families by providing funding for research as well as adaptive equipment.
Roy spoke of goals to the St. Mary’s students, and his are clear: to use the bicycle, skates and golf clubs he still owns.
Even with recent serious head and neck injuries to two Norwood High School hockey players, one of whom was diagnosed with a severe concussion after hitting his head on the boards at Milton’s Ulin Rink, Roy didn’t talk about the dangers of hockey. He calls his accident a “fluke.” Without hockey, he said, he would not be the person with the same ideals and morals he has today.
Setting goals, showing love, having pride, respect and a positive attitude are the values that made Roy who he was both before and after his accident, he said.
“There are so many little things in my presentation, you hope they take one,” said Roy. “[Presentations to students] are probably the most important. You have such an opportunity to influence their lives. It’s a pretty unique opportunity and I really cherish it.”
The message was not lost on the St. Mary’s students.
“He’s an inspiration ,” said sixth-grader Vanessa Udoji. “I’m impressed by how helping he is.”
“What’s the one thing I’ll remember from the speech?” asked fifth-grader Neil Clark. “Be positive.”
When it was over, a smiling Roy, who spent months after his accident strengthening his right biceps – the part of his body below his shoulders that he can move and feel – used that muscle to lift his right hand and shake with as many St. Mary’s Hills students as possible.