Really, really cool weekend

This has been a very busy couple of weeks. I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog, but SBAK has been planning a one day conference for several months now. At one point last fall, I told my boss I thought it would be so exciting if we could invite Aaron Fotheringham to be our keynote speaker and special guest. If you don't know who Aaron Fotheringham is, he is a 19 year old wheelchair athlete from Las Vegas who has Spina Bifida. He is known as the first person to land a back flip in his wheelchair. He's been featured on ESPN, the Today Show, etc, and recently a Nike commercial. He also travels the world doing his wheelchair tricks.

So I worked with Aaron's agent for several months to decide on a date, his fee, his contract, all that stuff. In the meantime, we were planning a full on conference. After I had most of the planning done, I looked at some other chapters who were doing education days and saw they were doing half days, one track of sessions, etc. Ohhhh, see that would have been much easier and more realistic than my plans for our first ever conference! :) I planned three tracks of sessions, with speakers from as far away as New York, AND we decided to offer it for free.

So the last few weeks have been wild at work, because we had two big events 5 days apart to plan, but last week in particular was crazy as I was putting together all the last minute details. I worked until midnight on Wednesday and Thursday, but at 11:55 on Thursday night, I marked the very last thing off my to do list. All the planning was done, and we just had to put the plan into motion.

So on Friday we packed up three vehicles with boxes and unloaded them at the church where we had the conference and started gettinng everything set up. In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to go pick up Aaron Fotheringham from the airport. I introduced myself and immediately could tell he is a very nice kid. He was very easy to talk to. But when we reached the escalators and I was veering to the right, he said, "We're going down, right?" I said, yes, the elevators are over here. He said, "I go down the escalator." Okay, I know some people who use wheelchairs go down escalators, but here's the thing. I am afraid of escalators. I fell down an escalator in London once, and it traumatized me. Even now, if I'm on an escalator, I prefer for someone to be in front of me (going down) so they can catch me. This guy is not scared. And notice he was in front of me.



Then I started walking toward baggage claim, but he had no bags. All he had was a very unfull backpack and a helmet hanging from the back of his chair. So we went outside, and a local van company was so nice to provide an accessible van and a driver for Aaron the whole time he was in town. By the time we got out there, the driver already had the ramp out for him. We could tell he really did not want to use it, but he did. When we got to the hotel, though, he jumped his chair out the other side of the van. And the driver told me that the next time he got in the van, he jumped his chair up into the van.

Anyway, when he got in the van, he saw my surprise for him. The previous day, I saw on Facebook that Aaron joked he was coming to Kentucky and wanted some KFC. So I had some KFC waiting on him in the van. Like I said, it was just a joke, but he was so thrilled with this chicken, it was funny! He immediately tore into the chicken. :) He thanked me like 4 times for the chicken and posted about it on facebook. I think we all must take our KFC for granted. You can also see beside him in this photo that we gave him a Redefining SB tote bag with some Kentucky gifts, like a miniature Louisville Slugger bat, a UK hat, a t-shirt from our conference, and some Kentucky snacks.

So when we got to the hotel, we asked Aaron if he would like to rest for awhile after his long trip. He was like, No, I'm not tired. Of course he's not. He's 19. If I had been on a plane for that long, I would have needed a nap. So the driver took him on a little tour of Louisville, and by the time I got to the skatepark that evening, an hour before our event started, Aaron was already there riding!

So that night, we gave Aaron the chance to ride at our Louisville Extreme Park. It's one of the top skate parks in the country, and he thought it was "sick." He said it was like his Disneyland, and he was considering taking a cab back out there in the middle of the night to ride more. He wants to fly back out here just to ride it again. :)

Anyway, we invited families to come out and meet him, and we had a great crowd, as well as some media! Yay! Aaron took the time to meet every single kid there and talk with them.

He also did some awesome tricks. No, he did not do a back flip. Actually it was in his contract that he would not do flips, and now I understand that it's not a good idea to try a flip at a new park that he's not familiar with. But he still totally wowed us, and he also crashed a few times and scared us! Halfway through, he decided he was going to drop in this huge bowl. He would sit there for a minute just looking down and, I assume, getting up his nerve. Then he'd just free fall for a few seconds and catch the wall several feet down.

Later I told him that every time he did that trick, my stomach dropped. He said, "Mine too!" He took lots of pictures with kids, signed autographs, and one little boy even interviewed him. His mom told me he was going to whisper to him, "Do you pee out of your belly button too?" Can you imagine being a little kid with SB and seeing this guy as your hero?

After the skatepark, a bunch of us went out to dinner with "Wheelz." We talked him into ordering a Kentucky Hot Brown, a local specialty, and taught him how to properly use the word "Y'all." Along with staff, there were some other families there, and I have not had that much fun in a very long time. I laughed until my face hurt. Aaron was really fun to hang out with.

The next morning, Saturday, was the big conference that we had been planning for so many months. In addition to the conference sessions, we also had a full Kids Camp with their own full, fun schedule. Nate had the BEST day ever--playground time, coloring trains, a music class, etc. Georgia did not have a happy day, and there were so many instances when I walked into her Kids Camp room to ask a question or help and she would spot me and attach to my hip.

We also had a vendor area, and we sold SBAK merchandise. We had an awesome t-shirt designed by Andy Gibbs, of Redefining Spina Bifida fame, lol. It was a lot of work, and I was hustling all day long, but everything went exceptionally well. Everyone learned a lot from the sessions.

Aaron did an excellent job with the keynote speech and got a standing ovation! He ended with "When life gives you a wheelchair, find a skatepark!" He was very inspiring. The audience was able to ask him questions too--everything from "How high is your mother's blood pressure?" to "How much of your legs can you move?" It was very interesting.

After his speech, everyone had time to get an autograph from Aaron. There was a ramp up to the stage, which was a couple feet off the ground, but I knew what he would do. He went over to the edge and just dropped off the side, lol.

At the end of the day, everyone had only very positive things to say about the whole day. They learned from the sessions, enjoyed the time to chat with other families, were inspired by Aaron, and were happy with the kids camp. The whole weekend totally exceeded my expectations.

It's Monday night, and my legs are still so sore it hurts to move! But I'm still thrilled about what we accomplished. And it was FUN.