Rick stopped into Port Alberni on Vancouver Island as part of his finale. I had the pleasure of being in the overcrowded Alberni District Secondary School's auditorium when he wheeled up a ramp and onto the stage.

The venue's capacity was around 700+ and seldom to capacity for school events. That day, there wasn't standing room. The aisles were packed with some seats holding two students.

The greeting was magical with Rick, wearing an ADSS Athletes jacket, reached down from his wheelchair and touched the outreached hands of physically challenged students. They responded as though they received a jolt of energy from Hansen.

In this CTV Special Rick returns to Williams Lake, offers the details of that faitful day fifty years ago then takes us on a glorious trip through his recovery and his Olympic successes.

Some years later a Whistler employee, an ADSS graduate, was creating a snowboard run, tried it out, fell and was paralysed. When he woke from surgery, sitting in a wheelchair, bedside, was Rick Hansen. James said that he looked at Rick who asked, "Do you know who I am?"

James said weakly, "Yes".

Hansen replied, "Doctors told me that you are paralysed from the chest down and will never walk again. What are you going to do about it?"

James told the story months later after his rehabilitation that he was speechless, "I just woke up from surgery and he wanted me to make plans for my future."

Rick wanted James to concentrate on the positives, not the negative.

The ADSS graduate became a wheelchair athlete, a college graduate and returned to Whistler to carve out a career in management.