Who is Spencer West? For the impatient, I’ll cut to the chase: Spencer West is a real-life superhero.
I know. It sounds corny, and maybe cliché, but seriously, this guy is the real deal.
I hadn’t heard of West when I received a heads-up that he would be at Eagle River Secondary on Friday for a speaking engagement. So I turned to the Internet, where I found a short video on him. While viewing it, a slight tingle shot down my spine. I said, “Wow,” knowing this was a presentation I couldn’t miss.
In brief, West is a spokesperson for Me to We and Free the Children. The former non-profit organization promotes social consciousness and positive change, while the latter makes that change happen in places where it’s needed most.
Fittingly, West is a vibrant, humorous and thoroughly engaging communicator. His message is simple: we all have the ability to make a difference. It’s not just his passion that makes this believable, but also his story.
West was born with a genetic disease that prevents his leg muscles from working. At age two, he was amputated below the knee, and at age five, below the pelvis.
“Basically, I was told that there was no hope for me,” he says.
But West persevered. He overcame the social challenges of public school (he was even a cheerleader), and discovered humour as a way of helping people see past appearances. He continued to succeed after school, acquiring the material wealth that is often considered the measure of a happy life.
“I had all the gadgets, I had the clothes, I had money, I had a house, I had all those things and I felt cheated, I felt they weren’t making me happy and I wanted something more,” says West who, in 2008 was invited by a friend to Kenya to build a school with Me to We.
“The trip literally changed my life,” he says.
Since that fateful journey, West has stayed busy with Me to We and Free the Children, travelling the globe for speaking engagements while lending his strong will, and arms, to sustainable projects that have bettered the lives of children and communities.
What really made an impression, for me, were the little things that happened afterward. He was quickly swarmed by students wanting to get in a good word, a high-five, an autograph and maybe a photo. West graciously obliged everyone’s wishes.
Later, though seemingly pressed for time, and scheduled for a meeting with School District #83’s Me to We committee, West took a moment to talk to, and take a picture with another student who was unable to approach him earlier.
In that meeting with the committee, West was asked who his greatest inspiration was. He answered his parents, who raised him to be able to take care of himself, and who never treated him as different.
“If we did, you’d start to think you were different, and then you would never have taken the risks to become your own person,” relayed West.
If we are defined by our actions, I could think of no better term that captures who and what Spencer West is. And I expect, from the response he received at Eagle River Secondary, that the world will soon be graced with more young superheroes, unafraid to take action that will in some way benefit the lives of many.
-Lachlan Labere is a reporter for the Salmon Arm Observer and Eagle Valley News