Zac Parsons

In 1994, Brad Jacobsen was hanging out with some friends along the bank of a river in the Pacific Northwest.  Someone decided to break out a frisbee, and a spirited game began.  At some point, when someone threw a frisbee near to one side of him, like he did with so many other things in his life, Brad went all out.  With a few steps in the water and a quick, spry jump that was always natural for the athletic young man from British Columbia, he tried to leap into the water.  But his foot slipped on the sand.  Thinking that part of the river was deeper (and trying to avoid an embarrassing bellyflop), he tried to roll as he hit the water.  Sadly, it wasn’t.  It would be the last time he would ever have the use of his legs.  Brad’s spinal cord was irreparably injured.

Since that day, Brad has persevered from the life-altering accident to become a man more focused than ever on having a positive impact on this world and a high quality of life.  He also happens to be a VJ for The Pacific Institute’s “Discovering the Power in Me“.  Brad has an incredible sense of self-efficacy.  He continues to be an avid outdoorsman and has hiked the physically and mentally exhausting Pacific Trail.  He is producing a documentary of the journey he and nine friends took on the trail.  Check out the preview below.  If you would like to be a part of financially supporting the completion of his movie, you can contact Brad at poobala@hotmail.com.

His body may be seated, but his spirit is standing.

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The Pacific Institute just released a new promotional video for the Discovering The Power In Me program.  Although initially designed for people suffering from spinal cord injuries, it has been incredibly useful for people dealing with all sorts of trauma.

For more information about Discovering The Power In Me (DPM) please visit my page on this program here.

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Wednesday morning’s awareness breakfast for the Discovering the Power in Me program went differently than I envisioned it, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.  We had a handful of people attend, and plenty of food for everyone.  We realized that signage could have been better for people to find the conference room once they entered the Disability Empowerment Center, and that we need to look at our marketing efforts to get people to the event.  We created an invitation for Facebook users, but only had three people RSVP through that, and they were all project directors.  Cold calling hospitals and disability centered organizations didn’t yield much fruit either.  But, for those that were there, I believe they were able to see what it is that DPM can do.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Lou Tice’s advice on facilitating education or other types of public speaking.  He says that there are three things to keep in mind:  relaxation, fascination, and visualization.  As you can clearly see if you have been following my blog, I’m pretty enamored by the Susan Boyle story/phenomenon.  I planned to show the original video of her performance on Britain’s Got Talent at the beginning of our event.  I felt that it would set the right tone of relaxation in the room as it tends to unite people in our humanity when watching it.  But, we had some pretty significant technical difficulties, and by the time they were fixed, it no longer made sense to show the clip.  So, we jumped right into the introduction of TPI and tried to relax and fascinate everyone with that.  My own stress about the technical difficulties did not help the relaxation of the room, but I did my best to play it cool.

By the end, the technical difficulties had one happy result, we did not have to pay for the conference room.  The same gentleman who booked the room for us was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the technical aspects of the room.  He was sorry and a little embarrassed about it, but did the best he could to fix the situation with a full refund.

The goal of an awareness event is to transmit a message to a large number of people at the same time and create a buzz for the idea being shared.  Just because this event was not a smashing success does not mean that it will be my last attempt at something like this.  It just means that I will do some things differently, and that the next event will reach more people and create a larger buzz, because I am growing.  That’s the biggest goal of all of this anyway…growth.

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Yesterday, I went to the 9th annual pizza eating contest at Flancer’s Cafe in Gilbert, AZ.  The rules were set up to see which of the 25 contestants could eat the most pizza in 15 minutes.  The winner would receive $500, a crown from Miss Arizona, some bragging rights, and a sort of pizza allergy for the next week at least.

The contest would eventually be won by Jimmy Peng.  Jess Harter gave a nice write up and pics for the East Valley Tribune here.  Even better than the the $500 that Jimmy won and the publicity that Flancer’s received, was the nearly $20,000 that was raised for the Wounded Warriors Project with Disabled Sports USA.  Kirk Bauer is the Executive Director of the program and has been involved in the Flancer’s fundraiser for a few years now.  However, this was his first time down to Arizona to see the contest live, in action.  He was a very gregarious, encouraging, and outgoing man.

Having a disability himself, Greg has a deep personal passion for helping others achieve success in life.  He lives this success himself.  He finished the Boston Marathon in 2000, winning in the Mobility Impaired class.  He is a fantastic man involved in a wonderfully effective organization.  It was very encouraging to see.

I also met a member of the Board of Disabled Sports USA, Gregg Baumgarten.  He lives and works locally in Arizona with Arizona Disabled Sports.  We hit it off quickly and he told me about the Desert Challenge that was commencing that afternoon.  He invited me to the archery competition and following luncheon.  It was incredible to see the successes achieved by the athletes in the competition, all with varying physical disabilities.

I got to meet many talented athletes and their families.  It was so very beautiful to see the comeradery amongst the competition.  Lane Jeppesen told me all about the organization and it’s purpose.  She clearly believes in the athletes that she works with and sees how their success in competition carries over into success and happiness in life.  The disabled athlete community in Arizona is clearly strong and thriving.  Gregg and Lane have a lot to be proud of.  I’m looking forward to getting more involved with this community in the near future.

All in all, it was an amazing day!

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Today I got to spend some time with Aaron Blackstone.  Aaron is an associate of The Pacific Institute and lives in West Seattle.

When he was a teenager, he was a top athlete in his school in soccer, wrestling, and track.  He also was highly involved in competitive horseback riding year round.  A car accident changed all of that.  He experienced significant brain trauma and spent 13 weeks in a coma.  He lost the use of many of his normal bodily functions.  He needed to re-learn how to read, eat, speak, bathe, etc.  His life was significantly different than it was before the accident.

What I was struck by most about Aaron, who has now lived more of his life with the injury than before it, was his glow.  He is an absolutely positive person.  His days aren’t “good”, they are “great”.  He lights up a room when he walks in and does even more when he opens his mouth.  Everything about who Aaron is now is for the good of the world.  He wants to and is changing people’s lives with his perspective on life.  It may have been having a near death experience, or it may just have been the supportive family that stood by him and lifted him up, year after year.  Aaron has all of the maturity of someone who has gone through difficult life experiences, but very little of the bitterness that can be associated with that.

He has kept a journal for over 15 years that is now over 2,000 pages long.  In it, he takes the principles of life that he picks up along the way, and personally applies them to his life.  He uses the words “I” and “me” as he builds affirmations about himself.  He looks at his accident as a gift.  It has changed the course of his life in a way that he would not want to take back if he could.

If anyone could claim to be a victim in life, it would be Aaron, but fortunately, he does not choose to.  I make the same choice today as well.

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