Photo Courtesy of UCFSD

Anand Shah ‘25

NEWS EDITOR

On Sept. 28 and 29, Chris Waddell, a Paralympic medalist, gave an inspirational assembly to students at Unionville Elementary and Pocopson Elementary. 

Waddell, who earned five gold medals for skiing in the 1994 Winter Paralympic Games, was paralyzed from the waist down from a skiing accident in 1998. Despite his accident, in 2009, he became the first paraplegic to scale Mt. Kilimanjaro nearly unassisted. Pocopson Elementary principal Dr. Clif Beaver noted that “Waddell only needed help to climb about 50 feet of the [nearly] 20,000 feet height of Mt. Kilimanjaro.” Waddell has presented to the district twice before, in 2012 and 2017.

Waddell’s presentation to the elementary school students revolved around his “Nametags” initiative, which focuses on building self-esteem and motivating students to create change in the world through “Nametags” that define oneself. Waddell walked through exercised with the students in which students were given different name tags with different colors and shapes on them. He then called certain colors and asked them to do certain tasks. He then called one specific color and shape, which corresponded to only one person, and gave them a copy of his book, Things I Want to Remember to Not Forget. The point of the exercise, according to Beaver, was to “demonstrate to students how even though we may come across a certain way to people and may be judged just from the outside, our unique characteristics are something to be celebrated.”

Unionville Elementary principal Dr. Michelle Lafferty said, “the Nametags were a really impactful part of his presentation, and I think the students walked away from the assembly having a new idea about what kind of person they wanted to be.” Beaver also noted that “as part of the program, Waddell gave each student a name tag to write down what kind of person they wanted to be, and I saw students wearing that nametag throughout the day [of the assembly] and the following day.”

The presentation “imparted upon students the message: ‘It’s not what happens to [oneself]. It’s what [one] does with what happens to [oneself],’” according to Laffety, though Beaver echoed the same sentiment. Beaver said that the assembly demonstrated to students “the importance of grit and and [growth] mindset when tackling life’s challenges.” In addition, Laffety said that students walked away from the assembly feeling “motivated and inspired to be their best selves and to be someone who could make a difference in the world.” 

When Waddell presented to Unionville Elementary in 2012, the school was hosting a “multi-disabilities support class,” said Beaver, and his speech “went a long way in demonstrating the need to celebrate differences and be mindful of each other.” Said Lafferty about the recent visit, “[the] students walked away feeling like they met someone incredible, and they also wanted to be just like him in how he overcame adversity to succeed in life.”better.