Just wiggle your toes.
That’s the name of Kevin Brooks’ autobiography. It’s one of his catchphrases when he speaks to young people.
It also harkens back to a horrible crash that left him paralyzed from the chest down, unable to move his toes or anything else on his lower body. The friend who was in the vehicle with him was dead.
Brooks, now 42, was 21 when he crashed his car while drunk. A few years later, he began taking his message of safety, sober driving and hope to students around the province, and now travels throughout North America as well.
His latest appearance was Tuesday at Cowichan Secondary School, where he had a virtual question-and-answer session with Grade 11 and 12 students.
“I’m doing five this week,” he said from his home in Surrey.
“I did eight last week.”
Getting positive feedback from students is what fuels him to keep going, Brooks said.
“I started doing this when I was 23, so I wasn’t that far removed from being a teenager, and from the crash,” he said.
Brooks said the crash that paralyzed him came on a night he was planning to stay home. He was talked into going to a party.
“Famous last words. I’ll just have a few.”
The guys went to the party, then a bar, then another party before deciding it was time to leave.
“My friends called a taxi and I hopped in my car,” Brooks said.
His buddy, Brendon, was in the taxi but decided to ride with Brooks.
“We were going to go hit one more party,” he said.
“He ended up dead. I ended up paralyzed.
“There was four people out that night, and two made a good choice and two made a bad one.”
Brooks’ foray into speaking began after a chance meeting with Rick Hansen, who inspired him as a fellow paraplegic who had done so much in his life
Years later, Brooks said he likes to think he is getting better as a speaker, and will be able to keep relating to as many people as possible.
Making a difference to people means everything, he said. That’s why he was so moved to get a recent message from someone who had been at one of his presentations 10 years ago — just wanting to let Brooks know that his message had kept him from ever driving impaired.
He had also passed the word along to his friends.
“That stuff’s been so cool,” Brooks said.
Cowichan Secondary vice-principal Rhonda LaForge said Brooks really drew the students in.
“His presentation is riveting,” she said. “He’s genuine, he’s sincere, he connects with the kids.
“He’s just so personable and just so honest.”
The presentation included a display of a car that was badly damaged in an actual crash, and a demonstration by firefighters of the use of mechanical jaws.
North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP Sgt. Trevor Busch said the idea was to reach young drivers before they get behind the wheel, and educate them about the risks involved.
“Hopefully that will stick with them and we won’t see them being the victim of a terrible crash one day,” he said.
Things can go terribly wrong “in the blink of an eye” when you’re driving, Busch said.
Brooks said his basic approach to a presentation is to tell a story, not deliver a lecture. His talks have evolved from a message on traffic safety to touching on perseverance, mental health and much more.
He said his speaking has become his career, and he works with ICBC in much of what he does.
“It’s absolutely fulfilling,” Brooks said. “It’s been really cool to travel and take the message all over.
“I thought once I’m away from my area code they won’t relate to me.”
Instead, he said, he seems to touch on universal themes that people want to hear about.
“They’re heard and felt wherever I go.”
