Some 1200 elementary students from across the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board are inspired to be "changemakers."
Spencer West is an inspirational speaker from the WE organization, which fights poverty in North America and around the world.
He lost his legs as an infant after being born with a genetic disorder.
West refused to let that get in his way and among his accomplishments, he has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
West says it's an amazing feeling to speak to students at this age, he's humbled by the energy they have.
He says his goal is to inspire people to be changemakers: "to empower people to change the world both locally and globally and to realize there are things going on in our community and outside of our community and how we have the ability to affect that change and not have to wait until you're older but that it starts at any age and how important it is to recognize that"
Inspirrational speaker Spencer West dancing with local elementary students (photo by AM800's Peter Langille)
West says his role at WE has allowed him to travel to far flung locations including Kenya, India and Tanzania.
He wanted to see their international development model called WE Villages overseas and to see how we're working to break the cycle of poverty overseas.
"The coolest thing for me is that it's not necessarily us doing it the reason I wanted to work for the organization is that they're literally giving these folks a hand up instead of a hand out"
His speech to the students was part of a full day of presentations at the Chrysler Theatre that included presentations about the environment, aboriginal culture, and the arts.