Author: Jeffrey Preston

I don’t have too much to say tonight (shocker, I know) but what I do have to report is positive news for sure. I spent most of this morning crafting a letter to the London City Council to once again implore them to pass the proposal to license more accessible cabs in London. I didn’t expect the letter to take too long, but I’m adamant that the letter has to be perfect, so it’s taking a lot longer than originally expected. Anyway, I’m hoping to get it locked down within the next day or so and transmitted to the appropriate parties by early next week. I really believe that in London, adding more accessible cabs will not only open things up for people with disabilities, but will be a water shed moment for accessibility. By adding more cabs, the proof will be in the pudding that not only did we need more accessible transportation but that we still have a long way to go–which is okay, because we will now have the stats necessary to empower and enable our City Councilors to pursue some more aggressive and lofty accessibility goals.

The real important thing that happened today, however, was our meeting with MP Brad Duguid. I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this meeting and I was definitely stoically nervous heading in. I’m not exactly sure why…perhaps I knew this was going to be a big one. Anyway, Brad is an unbelievably compassionate and educated man who genuinely wants the best for his constituents.

We had a really good chat about accessible transportation and right from the word go, in fact I think it may have been one of the first things out of his mouth, was “How can I help?” One thing that really struck me about Brad was his comprehension of the issues and his uncompromising resolve that accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do to “help” the disabled, but that accessibility is a right, protected in law, that we have a duty to provide. I was astonished when Brad explained how passionately he feels about accessibility, especially when it comes to the private section. Until recently, mandating accessibility in the private sector has always been tricky business–it’s really tough to mandate and legislate the private sector without causing quite a stir. But as Brad explained, the right to accessibility transcends ownership or commerce–we, as citizens of this great province, have the right to participate in the economy and in our communities, just like everyone else, something that can often be difficult because of the structural and architectural barriers prevalent in our communities (especially those with older downtown cores). Furthermore, Brad passionately believes that by opening up these spaces, we can break down not just the physical barriers but also the attitudinal misconceptions about what it means to be disabled.

Without repeating myself too much, I will simply say that I was really impressed by what Brad had to say and I really look forward to seeing him again next week at Queens Park. He is going to be a great ally over the next few months and I look forward to working closer with him.

Oh and not only was he a huge advocate for the disabled population, but he’s also an admitted Toronto Maple Leaf fan! Can you imagine? I know, I was shocked too. A man after my heart, for sure.

More is on the horizon, I’ll be updating the itinerary with a bunch of new events tomorrow afternoon so keep an eye out!

Until tomorrow…

– Jeff

I enjoyed the bed in our hotel room a bit too much this morning, sleeping in far longer than I had intended. Waking up after 10am, I knew I had to get down to work right away. My first job of the day was to contact Leeanna Pendergrast’s office to confirm plans for Monday at Queens Park. Unfortunately, things are still in flux there–hopefully we’ll have a confirmation by tomorrow. Afterwards, I made a call to the local Shoppers Home Healthcare and set up a service appointment for the chair. I’m hopeful they’ll be able to lock down whatever was wrong with the chair on our run from Guelph to Hamilton–at the very least, I’m sure it could use a bit of grease and tunin’ up. As it turns out, their shop is LITERALLY down the street from our hotel…how perfect is that? Totally unplanned, I swear.

The real objective today was to get ready for the TTC ACAT information meeting, which was held at the CNIB Office on Bayview. I was a little nervous heading into this meeting, not knowing how many supporters would show up from the community. Astonishingly, the house was PACKED. We had to wait about 15 minutes just trying to get IN to the meeting, as the entire entrance was blocked with about 8 or 9 full Wheeltrans busses dropping off local patrons anxious to voice their opinions. By very rough approximations, I’d say there had to be over 300 people there representing very diverse age, class, and disability groups. The turnout was absolutely spectacular.

So the meeting started off with a self congratulatory presentation by the TTC about how they’re doing some really great things for the disabled around the community. To be fair, some of the changes the TTC are planning are quite impressive, including a projection that they will be providing fully accessible services (bus, subway and street car) by 2020–a full 5 years before full inclusion is mandated by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, for those keeping score. Although quite informative, this section of the presentation took almost a full hour, occupying half of the time this “public forum” was scheduled to be run. Also, organizers had problem reaching the audience because of a lack of certain accessibility accommodations, namely closed captioning, along with a troublesome and tough to hear microphone. However, after laying out their strategy to become accessible, nearly an hour, it was finally time for the citizens who USE the service to have their say…and boy oh boy did they ever!

By the time the first question was asked, I half expected a full revolt. All I could picture was a giant rush of walkers, wheelchairs, and canes to flooding to the front of the room, thirsty for blood, and when the skirmish was done all that would remain would be the skeletons of the TTC managers who were running the meeting. One of our strongest champions, David Lepofsky, delivered a scathing attack on the powers that be at the TTC, criticizing them for spending almost half a million dollars in legal fees attempting to fight the implementation of accessible transportation, including but not limited to, attempting to stifle the public forum held tonight, which they claimed to be “unnecessary.” For more information on Lepofsky and his fight with the TTC, check out this article from the Toronto Star: here. The rest of the evening was story after story of people who had been left behind, denied access, and generally screwed over by the lack of accessible transportation.

It came to me during this meeting that what we really need, more than extra funding and more accessible busses, is a paradigm shift on how we think about accessible transportation in our communities. Currently, I believe accessible transportation is considered a luxury item provided by the gracious able-bodied, dripping in pejorative paternalism. I feel like the able-bodied providers see this as being something they are doing out of the kindness of their own hearts to help the poor cripples of their community and we should be thankful that they’re even willing to share some scraps from the big-boys table at all! So yes, the system isn’t perfect, but at least there is a system, right? Well, I for one am tired of licking their plates clean and I can safely assume that the +300 people at the meeting tonight were not satisfied with the scraps either.

What we need is a refocusing and shifting of the perspectives on accessible transportation. Instead of designing a system that forces us to fit within the structure, we must create structures that accommodate our needs. Where is the justice in a system that considers rider “late” if they are not at the curb within 5 minutes of pickup and yet the ride is not considered late until 20 minutes after the scheduled pick-up window? Which is another thing, pick-up “windows”? How many transportation systems in the able-bodied world force riders to be available for pickup between a 30-minute pickup window? It is absolutely ludicrous that we expect, nay, FORCE, disabled riders to make themselves available 30-minutes before a ride will show up and yet accuse them of being radicals and dissidents if they are 6 minutes late!

When all is said and done, despite taking a bitterly fought law suit to bring about change, the TTC does appear to be heading in the right direction. Having said that, my recommendation for the TTC in evolving and establishing permanent accessible solutions in Toronto, rather than simply putting money into the system is to design systems that meet the needs of your riders, do not require your riders to meet the needs of your system.

All we ask is to be treated with a little dignity!

– Jeff

Well, this one is gonna be the epitome of short! I got busy relaxing and playing some guitar and almost forgot where I was! Then just as I was about to make a little blog post I got into a heated discussion about accessible transit solutions with Sam and BAM, it was 1am.

So today was a day of work, but rather than accessible transportation, today I was slaving over my thesis. The writing is basically all done, I’m just putting the final touches on it and doing a ridiculous load of layout/format work. Whoever said the hardest part about doing an MA thesis is the writing is a liar and a thief…the worst and most tedious part is definitely the formatting.

Today also signified the end of freeloading at my dad’s condo–back to the hotel life for us. We checked into our new hotel, a Radisson, and man-oh-man are these some nice rooms! We’re just a bit north of downtown, but the rooms are really big and very classy (not to mention, at a very nice discounted rate). In honour of good work habits (and lets be honest, a bit of a reward), Pete and I headed out for some well earned Subway sandwiches for dinner. Luckily, not only is this hotel extremely nice and quite affordable, it’s also the mecca of all things tasty, being surrounded by basically every restaurant I could ever want–Tim Hortans, Wendys, Harveys, Subway, Basic Grocery Store, Red Lobster, and two British Pubs…side by side…I wonder if they have soccer brawls…

Anyway, as we’re walking into the Subway, Pete spots a sticker on their door that reads something along the lines “If you need special assistance, just ask for help” with a little handicapped logo. I’ve never quite seen anything like it, but I was curious to know where they got it–was it a part of a training program? A guild? Who knows. Anyway, after ordering our traditional subs (why rock the boat? been doin’ enough of that already!), while watching our server construct some god-like sandwiches, another employee came out from the back room and gave me a nice big stare. Then, hilariously, she bends down and looks at me through the glass and in a tone that was likely far more confrontational than she ever intended, she barks out “You want something?!” Now let me clarify; generally, this would be the type of thing a restaurant, or any service industry worker, may ask a customer…albeit not the most polite, it definitely gets the point across. However, the intonation and the glare she gave me when saying it lead me to believe that rather than offering to provide me with excellent service, she thought I may want a piece of her and was subsequently challenging me to a knife fight. Terrified and concerned she may be concealing a sandwich knife, I begin stammering “I’m with him” and pointing at Pete, who I’m pretty sure was trying to hold back his laughter. I’m not sure what was funnier: the way she asked me if I wanted anything or the fact that I was so surprised I basically crapped my pants.

Anyway, tomorrow is a big day of phone calls, networking, and a presentation to the TTC’s ACAT group who are asking the public for recommendations on how to make the Wheeltrans service better. (insert snarky comment here)

Well, my eyes are drooping and my sleep number bed is calling, my number is Softness x 1000, so I should probably wander off to bed. More to come, as if I hadn’t done enough already.

Knife-fightingly yours,

– Jeff

Before we get into the thick of it, I’ve posted the 2nd video blog of the trip. It can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0zgcVG9uG4

I shot awake this morning at about 7:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep–I’m getting better at this “getting up early” bulljive! I had my back to the window, but the room was soooo bright I was optimistic that the weatherman had blown the prediction and it turned out to be a nice and sunny day after all! It was at this moment that I remembered I had spent the night in my dad’s condo, which has these massive floor to ceiling windows that literally suck the light in. I swear, his condo is like a tanning salon, even in the middle of the night. I’m not an expert on Black Holes, but I can only imagine that his condo functions on the same principles. So when I rolled over and peaked out the window, I was greeted by some angry looking clouds rolling in over Lake Ontario. Perfect. I’m beginning to think Mother Nature has a really sick sense of humour…maybe I shouldn’t have bought such a goofy looking poncho…perhaps I should invest in a goofy sun hat? Mobilize March sombreros anyone?

So as per usual, Sam went out seeking caffeine, except this time I sent her to grab me a hot chocolate too–I best fortify this frail body against the elements while I can! Well, apparently there was a little translation problem at the local Starbucks and instead of a “Hot Chocolate” they gave Sam a “White Chocolate Mocha,” something Sam scoffed at and questioned the woman behind the counter: “Are you serious? I think this would probably kill him, he doesn’t even drink coffee!” After some intellectual wrangling on the differences between “white chocolate mocha” and “hot chocolate,” (and the correct spelling of “Free Drink Voucher”), we were on the road again, ready to make the final drive for two weeks. I know, I’m already getting a bit stir crazy! But whatever, bad weather or not I was going to enjoy this–no one could take that from me!

Wrapped in my orange poncho, also known as the Silly Happy Funtime Attention-Grabber Cape, I hit the road just off Highway 6, blazing a path down Dundas Street toward Mississauga. It rained consistently the entire trip and I can only describe my state afterwards as “moist”–I’m beginning to understand why so many of my friends hate that world…it is a dirty and foul word, I now agree.

People are really beginning to recognize us on the road. We had far more honks than every before and lots of smiling faces. We also had two people flag us down and give us a donation, with the first individual giving me a huge thumbs up and yelling “Atta boy! All the way to Ottawa! You go man!” I’m not sure what made the difference, if it’s the increasing media coverage, more people talking, or just people feeling sorry for me out in the rain, but I definitely feel like we made a big step forward today.

It was just the type of energy boost I needed as we enter a long and busy two weeks in Toronto.

After we finished up the run we ducked into a Harveys to grab some food and use the bathroom. Moments after getting into the bathroom, Pete and I heard a loud noise coming from the stall, which scared the proverbial crap out of us. What we thought may have been an angry person fighting with the toilet, we soon discovered was music being broadcasted into the bathroom over an intercom. At first I was kind of creeped out by the smooth funk tunes being blasted in the bathroom, but before I even knew it Pete and I were having a sweet light-switch rave party in the Harveys bathroom. Turns out it’s easier to go pee when listening to funk music–who knew?

Sure enough, by the time we returned to my dad’s condo the rain had stopped and the sun would be out by the time I finished editing this week’s video blog. To celebrate the first half of our driving being complete, Pete and I decided to head downtown and check out the movie Speed Racer on the iMax screen. To be honest, I think the critics have dealt this flick a totally bad hand–was it totally kitch? Sure. Was it inundated with digital graphics? Absolutely. Was the story a little thin? No thinner than most of the garbage pumped out of Hollywood. I had a really good time and the visuals were absolutely seizure-inducingly amazing. Yes the story was a bit light (boy finds car, boy fights corporations, boy kisses one of the only celebrities I’ve EVER had a thing for…you know, that old yarn), but the artistic aesthetic was absolutely brilliant. I really think the Wachowski brothers have pushed the action comic medium beyond it’s current deluge (insert snarky Iron Man comment here) and I don’t care who knows!

To top off a pretty relaxing evening Pete and I wandered into the local Chapters to raid the graphic novels section. Normally this wouldn’t be a bloggable event, it happens more than I’m proud to admit, however it did provide one little gem of an experience and it wasn’t when we ended up on the third floor and discovered two people making out in the Science Fiction section (although this was also pretty hilarious). As it turns out, getting access to the Graphic Novels in Chapters downtown is sort of like a reverse Alice in Wonderland–instead of tumbling down the rabbit hole you have to fight your way up a complex labyrinth of elevators, ramps and non-functional platform lifts. I got so close to the shelf that I could ALMOST read the titles on the spines of the books, however a flight of stairs limited me from getting right up and at them. After tinkering around with a platform lift and attempting to use the “Call” button that was hanging from a single wire (looks like someone hates them as much as me), we finally resorted to finding an employee to give us a hand. As it turns out, you need a special key to use the platform lift, which is a closely guarded prize held only by the manager. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that they actually have a functional lift to get me up the stairs, but it was definitely a little annoying finding someone to let me up. What is the point of having these types of adaptations if you’re going to stop people from using them? Granted, it’s not a big deal for me to ask for the key, but what about someone who is non-verbal or perhaps speaks a different language? This could be a huge barrier! Besides which, to me it almost felt like I had to ask permission to get into a different section of their store–as though they needed to “approve” my ability to peruse those specific wares. It is this type of segregating and ’special’ treatment that really riles me up sometimes. Anyway, despite the nuisance I made some pretty killer finds and it was a pretty decent way to cap off a relaxing evening.

Tomorrow is going to be pretty relaxed–working on finalizing my thesis while waiting for my dad to return to Toronto. All in all, it’s been a great two weeks and I can’t wait to see what week 3 has in store!

– Jeff

So, remember how I said I was totally caught up on sleep and whatnot? Apparently not! I woke up this morning with the sun on my face, only to discover it was 11am…no big deal…almost 12 hours of sleep. Luckily, we had no official plans today and I definitely needed the rest. This afternoon was spent lounging around my dad’s apartment and enjoying the long weekend–everyone needs a rest once in a while right?

Before dinner, Pete and I walked down to the harbour front to grab my dad some milk (by the way dad, your milk went bad) and some ice cream before sitting by the water and watching all the sail boats. For a day that was suppose to be kind of damp, it actually was quite nice–the sun was shining, the street performers were out in full force, and for the first time in this trip we were able to just let ourselves get lost in the crowd and enjoy the anonymity.

Tomorrow we will be making our final push to Toronto, driving from Hamilton to Mississauga. We hadn’t originally planned on making this run, however, we’ve decided to add the extra drive after doing a bit of investigating. You see, here at the Mobilize March we’ve gone high-tech–with the help of Google Earth and it’s satellite images, we were able to find a nice and big road that appears to be relatively calm, leading from Hamilton to Mississauga. From what we can tell, Dundas Street is a relatively flat two-lane road that borders the outskirts of several GTA communities (like Oakville and Burlington). Not only are there two lanes, but the road appears to also have a fully paved shoulder the entire way through, which will help ensure our safety. At the same time, we’ve formed these opinions on medium-quality satellite shots that have been uploaded to Google Earth, so who knows how reliable they actually are–only time will tell I suppose!

It also looks like it’s going to be a bit soggy tomorrow, however the weather man claims it’s going to get wetter as the day goes on, so we’re going to try and beat him to the punch and get an early start at it tomorrow morning. Although I’d prefer to stay dry, I’m afraid to say I’m almost getting use to spending time in the rain. Oh well, in a way it wouldn’t seem right if I got to spend the entire trip basking in the sun and enjoying myself, right?

So onward and upward tomorrow, what a fine way to cap off the long weekend!

– Jeff

Never fear, Jeff Preston is back in action, none the worst for wear—I knew I was going to need all the rest I could get to handle the long drive ahead of us today.

After spending two really good days in Guelph, meeting some truly incredible people, and catching up with some old friends, it was time to begin our final push to Toronto. Packing up around 9am this morning, we hit the road under an overcast sky by 10am, ready to take on the world.

Although a bit gloomy and a bit chilly to begin, this drive was truly magical. Not only do some of the back roads leading from Guelph to Hamilton boast some absolutely stunning landscape but also they are apparently rarely used. We were a little concerned with our timing, heading into Hamilton on the Friday of a long weekend, however we were pleasantly surprised to discover that a majority of the traffic in and around the road consisted of cyclists, walkers, and people working on their lawn—all happy to give us a smile and a wave as we passed—car-wise though, we were basically left to enjoy the open road in near-solitude for a majority of the day.

The lack of cars was a stroke of luck because today was also the first (and hopefully last) day of wheelchair troubles. Before leaving on this trip I have had a few problems with my wheelchair shutting off randomly while driving and flashing a “motor failure/miscommunication” warning light across the controller. Generally, it can be solved by flicking the chair off and on; however, sometimes this error can leave me stalled for over 30 minutes. I had taken my wheelchair in several times before coming on this trip, getting both motors replaced along with a proverbial butt-load of wiring and my controller (basically, they rebuilt my chair, piece by piece…sort of like a really, really unfun game of lego). Buuuut, shortly after leaving Guelph my chair stalled again in the middle of the road. I was just started to decent a small hill when the chair stalled out, causing me to skitter to a halt. Thankfully, Pete was watching and didn’t plaster me from behind, morphing me into a Presto Hood Ornament. After messaging Sam to let her know what was happening, I closed my eyes tight, sent out a little prayer to any and all immortal overseers, and flicked the power switch off and on. This time around, the reboot worked perfectly and the chair lurched back to life. Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come; however, it wouldn’t falter again for the remainder of the drive.
Carlisle, a small town between Guelph and Hamilton provided several really excited experiences for us. Just before entering the community, a man saw us from his porch and came running down to stop and chat. Although he had not heard about my journey, he was extremely excited after I explained to him what I was up to. As it turns out, he has a friend in a wheelchair who lives in a group home somewhere in (or near, I’m not totally sure) Carlisle and recently he attempted to take this individual out for dinner, only to discover there was no way to get him from his home to the restaurant. Just as I suspected, here was yet another individual being left trapped in his home, all because there is no accessible transportation.

Shortly thereafter, we landed in downtown Carlisle and decided to stop and grab some lunch in the TD Canada parking lot on Centre Road. It was here that an individual noticed the ramp sticking out of our van and decided to come over and chat. He explained to us that a relative of his recently had his leg amputated and was struggling to cope with the sudden lack of mobility. As it turns out, this individual use to love driving his car, something he didn’t think would be possible since the amputation. We talked for quite a while, explaining to him the adaptations in our vehicle and some of the other neat things Shoppers Home Healthcare is capable of doing with vehicles and I can honestly say, I’ve never seen someone smile so widely in my entire life. Here was a man who was left helpless, left to watch a cherished relative being sidelined by the lack of transportation and forced into a life of stagnation and isolation. But as we explained and show him, this doesn’t have to be his relative’s reality! There are solutions out there to get people active and involved, to reduce our limitations and push disability into the background rather than allowing it to dominate the foreground of our lives.

It is moments like these that inspire me to keep going, keep fighting, and never give up on the dream of accessible transportation.

The highlight of my day was definitely at the end of the trip, as I made my descent down the escarpment and into Dundas. Cresting the final hill and seeing Hamilton and Dundas unfolding before me was absolutely incredible. The view was so incredible I won’t even attempt to spell it out to you here, but rest assured that we have some excellent video footage from the ride down that we’ll be posted on Sunday or Monday morning in our 2nd video blog update.

While today had some absolutely beautiful moments, both visually and emotionally, today was also by far our most dangerous day on the road. While I won’t go into it again here (as I’ve discussed the insanity in an earlier post), I will once again put out the call—please tell everyone you know about what I am doing and please beg and plead that if they see us on the road that they drive sensibly and courteously. These senseless high speed passes on hills must stop or it is more and more likely that someone is going to get killed—something that would be absolutely horrific and stymie the positive elements of this March. Please, for everyone’s sake, drive sensibly.

The life or death factor segways into an interesting moment I had yesterday—while talking to a girl from Guelph, I was asked “Isn’t this dangerous?” to which I responded “It absolutely is” and she asked, stunned, “So are you saying you’re willing to die for this?” This question made me take pause and I had to think about it for a moment. I have spent a vast majority of my life doing everything possible to avoid the Grim Reaper—there are a lot more things I intent to accomplish before laying down for that final rest. At the same time, I fully understand and accept the risks involved with driving on the road, so to a certain extent I am willing, and have over the past few drives, risked life and limb for this cause. I think ultimately it is not that I am willing to die for a future of accessible transportation, I have never been nor will I ever be good martyr material, but there is nothing more important to me than emancipating the disabled population from the social chains currently ensnaring us all. I do not have a death wish, but I refuse to see any more lives ended, any more lives endangered, because we cannot manage affordable and functional accessible transportation.

You know, every day hundreds of individuals with disabilities across this province do like I am and refuse to sit at home and be disqualified from participating in our society. In the process, they take their lives into their own hands, risking their health in inclement weather and their physical bodies driving on unpaved roads or roads without sidewalks. And if the physical dangers were not enough, countless individuals with disabilities across this fine and beautiful provinces die metaphorical deaths, forgoing the life they would like to live in exchange for a life of isolation and stagnation, held captive by the lack of accessible transportation.

So am I willing to give my life? Maybe, maybe not. But what I can say, is I REFUSE to allow another life be lost because of the lack of transportation and there is NO PRICE TOO HIGH to pay to attain that goal.

– Jeff

Over the last drive we have seen a distressing new trend on the road–people blindly passing us on hills and nearly getting into head-on-head collisions.

I am putting out a plea right now to EVERYONE who reads this blog to please, please, please spread the word to everyone they know that we are on the road for the next month and if they see us to please be patient and not pass us on hills. Today we nearly witnessed five separate head-on-head collisions, all caused by people being impatient and attempting high-speed passes on hills–something, I might add, that is illegal. Please email, phone, and write anyone and everyone you know who may be on the roads we will be traveling on and encourage them to drive safe and smart. Not only are they endangering themselves and the other drivers, but they are also putting my life in grave danger. I know my wheelchair is pretty heavy (about 350lbs) but it will do very little to protect me if I get clipped (or hit) by a car. Please let everyone know and encourage them to spread the message to their friends and family.
Anyone who can help keep us safe, I would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks!

– Jeff

Hey everyone – the “infamous” Sam here, filing in for Jeff who’s too tuckered out from a record-breaking day of presentations and meetings to type. So, we started today bright and early.

Well, to be fair, we’ve realized that 8:30AM isn’t actually all that early for the rest of the world… but that doesn’t stop us from being exhausted when we’re forced to rise at any morning hour with only one digit. Or me from needing to down the largest cup of decent-tasting java I can find before I can form a sentence.

Anyway, this morning we pulled ourselves out of bed and made our way to Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute, the former high school of our very own Mobilize March Sponsorship Coordinator Mr. Alex Paterson. Alex had pulled some strings—pretty long strings I might add, stretching all the way from Malaysia, where he currently is—to get Jeff in to speak to a couple classes on pretty short notice.

At Centennial we met up with our documentary crew Aaron and Armand, who stuck with us all day and filmed basically everything Jeff did. The room we walked into that morning looked to me to be designed for theatre classes, with a dark stage area and tiered seating arranged around.

The perfect place for a presentation, but the whole stadium-style also necessitated some serious muscle to help Jeff down the few steps leading to the front. One of the benefits of being the only female in Jeff’s entourage is that I get to play the “no upper body strength” card on occasions like this, allowing me to supervise comfortably while the guys broke an early morning sweat lifting the 350pound + Jeff wheelchair up a few inches.

But I’m getting off topic (clearly I’ve been spending too much time with Jeff).

After talking for a half hour or so to the three classes the filed in to fill the room, we sped off to find a quiet place for Jeff to do a phone interview with The Beach radio station in Port Elgin—which turned out to be the back of our van in the Centennial parking lot.

Following that interview, we made our way to Guelph City Hall for a meeting with Mayor Farbridge of Guelph, as well as members of the city’s accessibility committee. While we were driving, we got a call from Rogers TV asking us if they could meet us at City Hall and interview Jeff.

Being the ego-manic he is, of course Jeff said yes. So within fifteen minutes or so, Jeff was once again where he is most comfortable—in front of the very public City Hall, surrounded at every angle by the four cameras trained on his every word, explaining the mission behind the March and his impending meeting with the mayor.

Rogers TV and our own documentary crew followed us into the meeting with Mayor Farbridge, which also included three members of Guelph’s accessibility committee. Mayor Farbridge was very receptive to Jeff’s ideas, and we heard a lot of great things about what Guelph was already doing, such as the fully accessible public bus service the city already has in place. All in all, it was very encouraging to hear about the efforts—and extremely successfully efforts at that—that Guelph is already making towards making their city a truly barrier-free community. Which is, of course, what the Mobilize March is all about.

After we departed from City Hall, we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before I split ways with Pete and Jeff. At about two o’clock, they headed back to Centennial Collegiate for another presentation while I remained behind to tackle the mountainous task of contacting every media outlet in and around the GTA. A couple hours later, after being runaround, redirected and rebuffed by automated answering systems and real people alike, I was more than ready for nap: round two. Which is basically where the whole productivity part of my day ended.

Tomorrow morning, we’re tackling a rather long leg to Hamilton. Hopefully, the weather is drier than yesterday (I don’t think I could survive that long a drive with Jeff in that ridiculous orange poncho… ten minutes and I’m already laughing too hard to steer properly!) and the long weekend traffic is bearable.

Providing he’s not even more exhausted after driving for 5-ish hours, it’ll be back to your regularly scheduled programming with Jeff tomorrow evening. I’m sure he’ll describe to you in great detail all of the shenanigans I missed during his second presentation at Centennial, as well as all of the trouble we’ll undoubtedly get into on the road tomorrow!

Until the next time I have the pleasure of writing to you while Jeff’s too busy drooling all over his pillow (or, when this whole “fame” thing Jeff is pushing takes off and I overtake him in newsworthy-ness… whichever one comes first), take it easy and see you on the road!

– Sam

We had another pretty busy day today so we got packed up and checked out of the hotel nice and early. Our first stop of the day was a stop in at Kitchener City Hall for a visit with the Mayor. Despite some minor parking difficulties, we made it up to the Mayor’s office in time and had a very productive meeting. One of the most interesting parts about this meeting was that, as I suspected, Kitchener has found that as they develop more accessible bus routes throughout their community, the disabled ridership has consistently gone up, which has lightened the load on the overburdened Mobility Plus service. This meeting confirmed my belief that by implementing small changes to accessible transportation there can be some really impressive improvements as several interconnected services share the brunt of the work load rather than one service attempting to brunt it all alone.

After the meeting, which ran much longer than I had expected, we made our way down the road to the Delta Hotel for the local Kitchener Rotary Club lunch. A good friend of mine, Todd, heard I was in Kitchener and invited us to the dinner the night before. I was so excited to have the opportunity to speak with some Rotarians about what I’m up to and hopefully get some support along the way. As always, the Rotarians were quite welcoming and offered a tremendous meal. After lunch I had a chance to make a mini-presentation to the group and they were quite receptive. One of the Rotarians came and talked to me afterward, explaining how he had spent 3 months in a chair once because of an injury and knew exactly what I was talking about. Apparently, Kitchener recently attempted to cut funding to the accessible transportation system and this Rotarian was quick to raise hell–he could not comprehend how they would even CONSIDER removing funds from an already underfunded and dysfunctional system.

With full stomachs and warmed hearts, we took to the road once again, making our way toward Guelph. Today was absolutely miserable out–it rained the entire way and was so cold I had to use gloves for the first time. After riding for about half an hour I finally broke down and busted out the orange poncho–my pants were getting dangerously wet. To make matters worst, every once and a while the wind would pick up and whip over the fields, blasting the rain right up under my hood. Luckily, we made a better choice of roads this time around and chose Fountain Street, which has some beautiful paved shoulders!

Today was also the start of something bizarre…and surprisingly dangerous. People outside of Kitchener were apparently in a bit of a hurry today and began passing us on the shoulder when we were on the road. While this may seem safer than passing us on the left hand side, not ONLY is it illegal but it would also take me completely by surprise, leaving me boxed in between oncoming traffic on my left and a passing car on the right. I’m not sure what we’re going to do to stop this yet, but I’m going to put my thinking cap on tonight because it’s way, way, way dangerous having people whizzing past me on both sides, especially when I’m not expecting it.

Although we made a great choice on roads in Fountain Street, our navigator-y skills kind of blew up in our faces when we turned on to Fife Road. At first, I was so excited, knowing that Fife Road signified the last 7km of our trek–soon I would be warm and dry! My upbeat attitude came crashing down about 5 minutes into the road–turns out Fife Road isn’t paved! Not only is it a dirt road, it also sports some nasty pot holes…pot holes that become mud covered quicksand pits in the rain that are impressively difficult to spot. So this went on for quite a while, probably half way down the road, when finally the road was paved. But wait! Mercy was not smiling down on us today. Just as we get on the pavement we notice a sign that states “Rough Road Ahead.”

Perfect.

Anyway, the rain decided to really pick up for the last part of the trip, although it wasn’t so bad because it made for some great photos for the local paper who came out to see us entering Guelph.

Tomorrow we have a pretty hectic day–I’m presenting at Centennial High School bright and early, followed by a chat with the Mayor of Guelph. I’m pretty excited and looking forward to visit Alex’s old high school (for those who aren’t keeping track, Alex is our sponsorship rep who is currently in Malaysia) and I’m curious to hear more about accessible transportation here in Guelph.

More to come tomorrow, welcome to Guelph!

– Jeff

Okay boys and girls, this one is gonna be long–it’s been an eventful day. If I’m saying this is gonna be long, you can only imagine where this is going.

But before we do, I just want to make a quick shout out to an apparent fan of the blog, Sheri. I’ve been told the first thing she does at work is log in and check out the newest blog post. So hats off to you Sheri, I love facilitating procrastination whenever possible!

So we got up this morning and made a dash across Kitchener over to Mary Johnson Public School to deliver another school presentation. The kids were the cutest yet and had some incredible questions. Once again I was left speechless when a young boy asked if I was ever jealous of people who can walk. It was just one of those bizarre moments of absolute clarity, so much so that it was difficult to verbalize exactly what I was thinking at the moment, but eventually I was able to explain that I have never looked “down” on my disability–granted I don’t walk, but who honestly wants to do that? It looks like a lot of work and why walk when you can drive, am I right? On a more serious note, my perception is something along these lines:

I don’t see myself as being disabled. Disability means you are “lacking” an ability, you are dis – abled, and I’ve never found myself to be lacking ability. What is truly disabled for me is not the wheelchair I use or the Muscular Dystrophy, my disability is a society that demands conformity and marginalizes anyone who does not fall into lock step within the prescribed “standard” configuration.

After the presentation, as we were packing up our gear and getting ready to head out, some young students came over to shake my hand and were literally bouncing with excitement. It was definitely one of the cutest things I’ve seen in recent memory–if those students happen to be reading this blog, you guys definitely made my day!

After our presentation at the school we headed over to the Scotia Bank downtown. Unfortunately, there was a bit of confusion and we were given the wrong address, so when we arrived moments before 11 (right on time, booyah) we were greeted by a confused, albeit friendly, staff. Eventually we got it all straightened out and made a made dash over to the actual branch we were suppose to be at. We arrived shortly after 11 and had a really good chat with the staff whose dedication to accessibility in Kitchener over the past few years is breathtaking. This is yet another example of how members of our community can truly come together and find equitable and feasible solutions to help break down the barriers being faced by the disabled population.

Tonight we had a very special event that I’ve been trying my hardest to keep a secret (apparently in vein, but it was fun while it lasted). Caleigh, the young girl who helped raise money for the March, was awarded the Junior Citizen Award in Mount Forest for her efforts. I absolutely had to be there to see her receive her award and to congratulate her in person. So with the help of Christina, I have been meticulously planning out our arrival so that we can show up and completely surprise Caleigh, who was informed that I wouldn’t be able to make it. The trap was set and everything was going perfectly….until we pulled up with our pimped out Mobilize March van at basically the exact moment that Caleigh was arriving. So as we’re about to pull into the drive way I see Christina jumping up and down and flagging us off, so I freak out and start screaming “DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE, GO GO GO, DRIVE SAM DRIVE!” and in the confusion, she does what any good escape driver would do–cranks the wheel, floors the gas and blazes out of the parking lot…likely causing far more of an attention grabbing ruckus than if we had simply driven in and attempting to act casually. Having said that, I’m more than impressed by Sam’s driving under pressure. If I ever need a getaway driver, I now know who I’m going to turn to. So we bolt down the road and attempt to hide inconspicuously down a side road, when I get a call from Christina and apparently the jig was up–not only did Caleigh see us but apparently she knew we were coming all along: we had a bit of an information leak. Anyway, the award dinner was absolutely fabulous and it was great seeing Caleigh win the award–she certainly deserves it. This kid is an absolute superstar and is destine for some truly amazing things. Her dedication to her family and her sense of rightness and justice are unparalleled for a girl her age (only 11!) and I can honestly say I hope I can be as brave as her when I grow up.

Tomorrow we have an ultra-full day so I’m going to have to sign off. We’re getting up early to check out of our hotel and head over to City Hall where we’re meeting with Mayor Zehrs. After our meeting we will be talking briefly to the local press, followed by an invitation to the Kitchener Rotary Club’s lunch meeting. I’m pretty excited for our first opportunity to speak with some Rotarians about what we’re up to–the Rotary Club in Port Elgin has always been such an incredible supporter of myself and my family over the years and I know they will always be there for us in our time of need. After lunch with the Rotary Club we are taking to the road and making our run to Guelph. The weather is still looking questionable at best tomorrow, so the orange poncho is likely to make a repeat performance. Oh well, see you tomorrow night Guelph!

– Jeff