 So a little bit about Special Link. As you heard, I worked for Special Link for about five years, and I was on the board of directors for several years prior to that, and I continue to be a huge supporter. Special Link was founded in a tiny little community in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. And it grew out of the experiences of a team of amazing professionals who worked at a childcare center called the Town Day Care. And at that time it was the only daycare in town, hence the name, Town Day Care. And as Sharon Hope Irwin, my mentor, often says hundreds of miles away from the nearest children's hospital, a far distance away from any of the professional services that many of us count on to do our work. And that team of early childhood practitioners found their way to a belief about inclusion because there was nowhere else to send the families who came to their door. There wasn't any kind of specialized programs. They were too far away to send families out on the road. And so one day a little boy came to the door, and there he is. Sean came to the Town Daycare with his mom and dad, and Sean at that time was under a year old, a little baby boy with cerebral palsy, a little boy who was the most significantly affected of any of the children who had ever come to that daycare. And Sean's parents wanted him to have a normal life experience, to be with other children, and by the way, they needed to work. They needed to work not only because they chose to work, but because, frankly, raising a child with a degree of physical disability that Sean had is an expensive proposition. And both mom and dad said, please, can you find a spot for our child? So of course the staff at the daycare talked about it, and they said, we think we can do it. Let's give it a try. Sean flourished in his years at Town Daycare. Here's a picture of him as a preschooler. You can just see the big grin on his face. Those of you who've seen the old special-length videos will recognize Sean as being a starring character in those videos. Sean came to daycare every day grinning from ear to ear, waiting to see his friends. Here he is with those friends, some little girls playing with him in the housekeeping center. I think many of us early childhood practitioners were probably kids like this, the helper kids. And thank goodness sometimes we have those children in our programs. They help us to create those inclusive environments because they want to be just like you. They want to be helpers too. Here you can see Sean in the dramatic play area. The little girls are helping him. They're doing hand over hand, which they've seen their early childhood teachers do. And they're helping Sean be a part of cooking up a soup or whatever it is that they're playing. Over the years that Sean attended the Town Daycare, the staff took many videos of him. And this was very early on in sort of video technology. Look what we've got today to be able to support this kind of amazing learning. But what they did at the Town Daycare was they videotaped Sean regularly and sent those videos down to Halifax to the Children's Hospital where the occupational and physiotherapist would review the video footage and give suggestions back to the staff about what they could do. So long distance consulting happened even back then I guess. And fortunately for Sean and his family, they did have many, many hours of videotape that showed everything that Sean could do, not only what he couldn't do. When it came time for Sean to transition into the school system, the elementary school in Glace Bay had never included a child with disabilities before. And initially they said, no, we don't think we can accommodate Sean in a grade one classroom. By the way, intellectually Sean is an extremely bright young man. Physically challenged, intellectually he could beat anybody in this room, I'm sure. And so the staff and the parents said to the principal, we believe Sean can be successful in school. And when the principal and the teacher reviewed the video and saw Sean in action, you know, years of playing experiences and learning with the kids at the center, they said, okay, we'll give it a try. So here's Sean, here he is in his grade one or grade two classroom. He's being brought up to the board. You may notice that there's letters, alphabets down at the bottom there and numbers. And Sean, by looking at the appropriate card, was able to show that he was following along with the teacher's directions. So very quickly Sean became an active member of the school community, building on the success of his early inclusion experiences. Okay, so fast forward a little bit. Here's Sean at 16, what's he doing? Golfing, could you imagine that a child or a young youth with cerebral palsy might want to golf as his life ambition. In fact, at his 16th birthday, Sharon, my colleague, was invited to his party because they've kept a very close connection over the years. Sharon went to Sean's birthday and said, so Sean, how's life treating you? What's it like to be 16? And Sean said, and he uses now communication systems to be able to articulate what he wants to tell people. Sean told Sharon that he had three really big problems. Lots of people looking at Sean would say, kid, you've got more than three problems. But the three problems that Sean listed were these. First of all, he wanted to get his ear pierced and his mean mom and dad wouldn't let him do that. Secondly, he wanted to go for Driver's Ed because of course at 16, isn't that a rite of passage? Everybody goes for Driver's Ed and Sean really wanted to learn to drive a car too. Now, the truth is his mom and dad are pretty nervous about Sean and new experiences. They weren't even sure whether he could actually have an electric wheelchair because Kate Bretton is quite hilly, mountainy. Kind of like the foothills around Calgary, I guess. They were worried about him falling off the top of a mountain in his wheelchair, but Sean really wanted to do Driver's Ed. And the third thing that Sean wished to be able to do was to play golf. His dad is a big golfer and Sean wanted to do that too. So a little communication happened between mom and dad and Sean and Sharon and some of the other supports in the family's life. And they decided that, okay, maybe Sean could get his ear pierced after all. There's nothing to say that people with cerebral palsy can't have an ear pierced. So he got his ear pierced much to his delight. Secondly about going for Driver's Ed, the family eventually decided that Sean could at least take his beginners and go to class time with the other students. Of course, he passed. He knew his traffic rules, you know, cold, and maybe eventually they would have the money to adapt a car for him to be able to learn to drive. The third one about the golfing was actually a little bit more problematic. There was a golf course close by, but it was one of those kind of snooty golf courses where, you know, you need to be pretty privileged to afford a golf club membership. However, Sean knew that the golf club did not have any members who had physical disabilities. Sean also knew about a court case that was working its way through the system in the United States at that time. And this is true. There was a golfer who was suing the PGA tour because he had had a heart attack and came back to golf, wanted to use the golf cart, and initially the PGA organizers said no, that would not be fair. And this fellow, it's the states, of course, they sued, and this fellow won the right to be able to use the golf cart and the PGA tour. And now similar championships across, you know, the country around the world all will accommodate for people with disabilities. Sean knew all this, and he asked to have a meeting with the board of directors of the golf club, and he went in and he met with these guys in suits, and he told them, you don't have anybody with a physical disability as a member, and you should. And they blinked, and they gave them the membership. And so if we can just have that picture back again, there's Sean golfing at the age of 16. Sean is an amazing advocate, and so are his parents. And when you ask the family, what gave you the strength? Where does that come from? They all refer back to the early childhood experience as a place where no one ever said to Sean, you can't. They always said, you can. And we will help you find the way to do it. And Sean's taken that with him, and so have his mom and dad. In fact, each year Sean goes back to the town daycare and acts as their keynote speaker at their annual general meeting, encouraging this next generation of families to embrace inclusion in the same way as that previous generation did. I'm telling you this particular story because sometimes when we work with young children, it's hard for us to imagine what will their future hold, right? Where will their life journey take them? And we now have stories like the story of Sean, stories of kids who experienced inclusion as preschoolers, and we know where they are today. We can track the inputs and the outputs if I dare to use that kind of language when referring to children and the work that you do. So what was next for Sean? He finished high school and many of his friends were going on to Cape Breton University, and Sean wanted to go to university too. But before that happened, something wonderful was happening in Ottawa. We had a government at that time who was talking a lot about early learning and childcare, and we had a government who was asking for input from the country as to what should be included in the foundation's program. Some of you will remember that. They talked about quality, they talked about accessibility, they talked about developmental, they talked about universal. The one word that was missing was inclusion. So a meeting was called, and Sean was able to greet a very important minister. It wasn't your minister, the champion, who was here just a few minutes ago. It was a different champion. Anybody recognize who that is in that picture? Ken Dryden. Ken Dryden came to Glace Bay to meet Sean, to tour the daycare center, and to hear the story from Sean directly as to why inclusion needed to be part of the Quad principles. And he was apparently so impressed that when he got back to Ottawa, a little bit of wordsmithing happened, and from then on when the liberal government talked about the Quad principles, they talked about universally inclusive. We give Sean the credit for a lot of that influence. So you never know who are your advocates. The people, the children, and the families who experience our programs are the best spokespeople of all. So now it's time for Sean to go to university, and Kate Bretton University is a little nervous about the idea of Sean coming there. They've never accommodated a student with disabilities like Sean's before. How would he go to class? Who would take notes for him? How would they test him? What would this be like? And to complicate it all, Sean told them he wanted to sleep at residence. He wanted to live on campus like his peers were doing. Now his mom was a little taken aback by that. She said, but Sean, where will you sleep? And Sean laughed and said he would take his water bed from home, and they would set it up at the residence, and that's where he would be. And Sean's mom said, but Sean, where will you sleep when you come home on the weekends? And he said, mom, I'm not going to come home on the weekends. He wanted to be partying with all of his friends. So where is Sean at university? Here he is. And this is Sean with Derek, his tutor and primary caregiver. And Derek was a really important resource to Sean. As he worked his way through a four-year degree in commerce, he graduated recently with honors. He actually ran for president of the Student Association, and although he wasn't the successful candidate, the fact is he ran for president. There was no reason for him not to do that. And very recently, just getting ready for this presentation, I googled Sean just to see where is he at now. This is a young man who you're going to continue to hear wonderful things about. And here is an article that appeared in May 2010. That talked about Sean as an inspirational graduate from the university. And the really exciting thing now is that with Sean's work and the advocacy of his parents, the government has agreed for him to be able to live independently and will be providing the resources that he needs in order to live in the community like any of us. He's looking for a job. And I will say happily ever after to Sean and kids like him. It gets back to the work that started in the early years, those attitudes and the positive attitudes that Sean experienced along the way. And let's hope that he continues to have those experiences forever and ever and ever.