written by Josh Simpson grade 5

On Tuesday, January 17th, Kevin Frost came to Queenswood Public School and did a presentation to our students. It was VERY inspiring.

I really liked the way he introduced us to Nemo, his seeing-eye dog. He asked us, "Does anyone remember the name of that fish movie made about 2 years ago?" Everyone knew the answer, Finding Nemo. Then suddenly he pulled Nemo out of nowhere! It turned out that Kevin had hidden Nemo behind a mini wall with his supplies. Nemo hadn’t made a noise at any time! Then he told us about Nemo. Did you know that Nemo is a seeing-eye dog and has saved Kevin’s life 8 times? Good dog!

Kevin is a blind deaf speed skater. (The world’s first, actually.) And he really rocks at what he does! Well, he isn’t totally deaf or blind. My opinion is that he has to suffer a worse fate. Kevin Frost can only see through 2 tunnels the size of straws, and a noise has to be at least 85 decibels for Kevin to hear it. But, if he is disabled (with Usher’s Syndrome, a genetic disorder), why is he skating? Well, he has been on the ice for 25 years as a hockey referee! But the reason why he speed skates with able-bodied people is that speed skating isn’t in the winter sport section of the Paralympics.

How did he survive his childhood? Believe it or not he learned by himself how to lip read! One of his goals is to compete in the able bodied Olympics and to get speed skating in the Paralympics. That’s about all I know about this man, but there is so much more to learn about him! He is definitely a true Canadian hero. Go Kevin go!

If you want to know more about this marvel on skates, go to www.deafblindspeedskater.com.