Motivational speaker Chris Koch visiting Margaret Wooding School in Redcliff on Tuesday (Photo courtesy of Scott Roblin)

By Scott Roblin

Inspiring Message

Koch inspires Margaret Wooding students with story of resilience

Jan 28, 2020 | 5:22 PM

REDCLIFF, AB – For many of the students at Margaret Wooding School on Tuesday, seeing Chris Koch initially came as a shock.

But as they to the motivational speaker share his message, they came to look past his physical disabilities.

That was the point of Tuesday’s early morning presentation, as Koch continued his ‘If I Can’ tour in Redcliff.

“They don’t see colour, they don’t see gender, they don’t see all that stuff until we go and screw it up for them,” said Koch. “So, I’m just a regular dude. Obviously, I look different from everybody else, so there is that feeling out period. But, it’s usually a fairly short period and then I’m just a regular guy.”

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Koch was born without both his arms and legs and grew up in Nanton learning how to get around, eventually working in the agriculture and airline industries in Calgary along with being a spokesperson for The War Amps.

Margaret Wooding School principal Craig Corsie initially reached out to Koch last year when the speaker visited Medicine Hat and was thrilled to have him visit his school.

“Chris is such a personable guy just the way he engaged with the students, the way he brought humour into his presentation,” said Corsie. “The students were absolutely absorbed in what he had to say.”

Koch’s speaking engagements have brought him all over the world, but he added there’s something special about getting to visit southern Alberta again and chat with local students.

“I pride myself on being that guy that is more than happy to go to small town Alberta, small town Saskatchewan, middle of nowhere Australia to do presentations,” said Koch. “Small towns, those are my people as well.”

Koch also showed off his skateboard to the young students on hand Tuesday, which serves has his primary source of transportation.

Over the last few years, Koch has taken up another passion in marathon racing as he completed the ninth marathon of his life last week in a time of 4:15.15 in Dubai.

“I want to be leading by example and not just talking the talk,” said Koch. “I don’t want to do a presentation talking about that one thing that I did 10 years ago. I want to talk about that one kayak trip that I went on a couple months ago or that marathon I just did on Friday.”

Learning the lessons of overcoming adversity and looking past disabilities, the students took away an important message from Koch.

That message didn’t just stop there however, as many of the teachers and instructors came away with a better understanding of resilience.

“We work with students a lot around teaching them resilience, belief in one’s self, and self-confidence,” said Corsie. “As a staff having an external source, somebody especially with Chris’ background and his experiences come to share that message and reinforce the things that we’re teaching, that’s a really powerful thing.”