Making Dreams Come True

Being charitable and lending a hand to those around us is something we're all familiar with but helping so that others can meet their dreams takes the Good Samaritan philosophy to a whole new level.

The story of high school basketball coach, Jim Johnson and his equipment manager, Jason McElwain, (AKA J-Mac) is a great illustration of what this concept is all about.


On Feb. 15, 2006, Coach Johnson gave J-Mac an opportunity to play in the final game of the regular season by inserting him for the last four minutes.

And that's when a MIRACLE happened:



Jim Johnson joined me on HCL Radio to talk about the story that inspired the book, "A Coach and a Miracle".

As you'll hear from the coach, it's a story that provided hope and inspiration not to only those involved but to others as well.

Helping dreams come true does three things:

• It demonstrates kindness
• Reinforces the importance of our individual actions and the impact it can have on others
• Motivates people to help others.

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can. ~Sydney Smith

See you on the court!

Get In The Game and Take Action!

On Friday, February 4th, 2011, I was honoured to be the recipient of a Speakers Bureau Spirit Award from the United Way of Peel for being an outstanding ambassador for the United Way.

I was presented with the honour during its Community Achievement Celebration when the 2010 campaign total of $13,752,578 was announced.


As a member of the Speaker's Bureau, I would visit different workplace campaigns to encourage giving and to help increase awareness of how United Way funded programs support our community.

A key characteristic of leadership is recognizing when action needs to be taken and then actually doing something about it. I'm constantly reminded how true this is on a seemingly daily basis through the lessons provided by my six year old daughter who was diagnosed with autism.

Autism is a disorder of neural development and Jahleesa's speech has been severely delayed. While this can make communication challenging at times, she's also proved that our ability influence others isn't tied into the things we say, its the things we do that matter.

Leaders are the ones who take action when action is needed and the best part about it is that you don't have to be a professional speaker to make a difference.

Organizations like the United Way are always interested in people looking to make positive contributions and be leaders in their communities. If this is something that you've considered in the past but haven't acted on, I'd encourage you to do so.

It's not hard.

So stop hanging around the sidelines and

Get In The Game and Take Action!

See you on the court!