Middle Years

Don Elgin Presentation

This year the theme for the College is Perseverance: the real mistake is to stop trying.

All Middle Years students  attended  a presentation by Don Elgin to tell his story of perseverance.

Darren Hoogkamer

Leader of Middle Years

Reflections on the Presentation

Throughout all my schooling years I've had many special guests or presenters come and talk to my classes about interesting topics, but never have I ever had someone who was as enthusiastic, interesting and as heart-warming as Don Elgin                                              

Last year getting the Elgin/Marriott Award meant the world to me and it still does now. After I was asked me to introduce Don Elgin, I was very humbled, but also wondered if  Middle Years students would be interested in his story. After  researching him, he became more interesting but I still wasn't sure.

The nerves still rushing through me, I got up and read my introduction. As I went to sit back down he started playing a video that was basically his journey summed up in two minutes. The video made everyone smile or say wow. It was so inspirational not just to me but everyone else in the room.

The first words that came out of his mouth after that were “What did you guys think of that!” The enthusiasm in his voice made everyone else in the room enthusiastic too. That was the vibe that he brought.

Being born without his left leg or part of his thumb was just the start of his many, many hospital trips. I honestly couldn’t possibly think how hard it would be growing up for the first fourteen years of your life full of hospital trips. But that wasn’t his hardest challenge.  Tackling Papua New Guinea's Kokoda Trail was 96 km of pure walking up hills and down slopes.   I could not think of anything bigger than that.  Myself having thought that the beep test or Thousand Steps was hard was only a small glimpse of what Don had to face and to know that he’d done it twice was just inspirational.

Simple things like running and skipping didn’t come easily to Don either. He said that he was told by almost everyone he saw that he couldn’t skip because it was too much pressure on his stump on the downwards jump. He kept on persisting even when he wanted to give up. Who would have thought that just a simple thing like skipping can be so hard and It really makes you think about the little things you stress about and how irrelevant they can be when someone else is missing an arm or a leg.

He has written two books (One Foot on the Podium and One Foot Beyond the Podium) and donated a copy of each to our Library.  My day went from a one to a ten just because one person had spoken to me, one person had inspired me and that person was Don.

The students really appreciated Don sharing both his story and his outlook on life and now better understand what perseverance is.  

As Don told all the students and I am now telling you, ‘Keep making every step a winner’.

By Mackenzie Le Fevre Year 8