JMM Speaking

Dec 9/10 Video Blog – Saskatoon

// December 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

Hey check out my video blog I uploaded today.

SADD week in December at Kerrobert Composite School

// December 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

I am very excited to be presenting at Kerrobert Composite School for their SADD week in December. This is one school that is committed to preventing any traffic related fatalities this Holiday Season. I want to thank Alanna and all those in the SADD group at Kerrobert Composite School for inviting me to be apart of their SADD week in December.  If I can save just one life then it will be worth everything I have been through. See you all very soon.

John Westhaver
Burn Survivor/Professional Speaker
www.jmmspeaking.com

Be Safe This Holiday Season

// November 30th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

I’m excited for the fun Holiday Season that is coming upon us. There will be lots of love and laughter enjoyed over the next month with great friends and family. When we surround ourselves with friends and loved ones we have a hard time not smiling and laughing.

 Unfortunately because of the nature of the holidays and the festivities some have a tendency to drive after being impaired. This is very un-acceptable as there are so many ways to get home safe. We could call a cab, take a bus, call a friend or family member to come put you up or even call a driving service that will come pick you and your car up and deliver you safe at home. Please everyone lets make a change and not drive while impaired this holiday season and forever.

 If you need a reason then, think of your loved ones, friends or family. Think of how it would affect them if you were seriously hurt or even killed. How would they feel if they were never able to live, laugh and love with you again? How would you feel if they were gone? Lets make this a SAFE HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON. I wish you all the happiness and joy this Holiday season. Please be safe.

 John Westhaver
Burn Survivor/Professional Speaker
www.jmmspeaking.com

2009 PARTY Program Video

// November 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

Here is a short video before my presentation for the PARTY Program at the Victoria General Hospital. To find more out on the PARTY Program please visit http://www.partyprogram.com/.

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Direkthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGGjFY1EcAI

Stratford Professional Firefighters Burn Foundation Referral Letter

// August 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving

I recently recieved a wonderful referral letter from the Stratford Professional Firefighters Burn Foundation. With organizations like these supporting me and my message I know my message will reach so many people and save so many lives. Below is a link to the letter, please feel free to look at it. I encourage you to comment on the letter and my work. Thank you again Steve and Tim and the Stratford Professional Firefighters Burn Foundation.

CLICK HERE : Referral Letter

CYAID Conference – Day Two

// May 14th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

Waking up in Regina was nice this morn. I had a bit of quiet time this morning when I woke up so I decide to go through my presentation a few times. Once Brianna woke up we went for a nice breakfast at a local restaurant. After breaky we headed for some Tim Horton’s coffee. With our Timmy’s in hand we headed back to the University and prepped for my presentation at 3pm.

After lunch we saw the “We to Me” presentation with Raymond Ablack, wow what an amazing presentation. Raymond is a very captivating speaker and his story was great. For more on “We to Me” and what they are doing please visit www.wetome.com.

I stepped out of the presentation at 2:30pm for a quick interview with Barbara from the Leader Post. The interview is now online at http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Survivor+deadly+crash+speaks+Canadian+Youth+Against+Impaired+Driving+conference+Regina/3030563/story.html if you’d like to check it out. After the interview the students had started filling out and that was my cue for me to start setting up for my presentation. I entered the auditorium and on stage was a swarm of teenage girls and in the center was Raymond Ablack. Once the girls were finished with Raymond I started getting setup for my presentation.

The presentation started on time and I was introduced by a sweet girl. I have never presented to a more attentive audience and when you have such an attentive audience it makes the presentation that much easier to deliver. After the presentation the students all gave me a warm standing ovation. There were so many great questions from the students. When they ask great question you know the students are listening.  Once the questions were done the students all came up on stage and had their pictures taken with me individually. This was the first time for this for me but it was great to have the students come up after.

We had a nice supper with the students and after supper all the students got on busses and headed for the RCMP Museum. We followed in our rental car and arrived at the RCMP Museum where we watched a short video and then toured the museum.

Once we left the museum we went for a drive around the city of Regina. We stopped at the Casino here and won $100 and decided to leave while we were up. Now we are back at the University and settled in for a quiet night.

Now we are off to bed. Again thanks for reading my blog and please share it with anyone you think should read it. Please come back soon.

CYAID Conference – Day One

// May 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

We woke up early today as we had to fly to Regina for the CYAID 2010. Once we were packed we got on the road to the airport for a 9am flight. Everything went well today with the flights as they were both on time and no interruptions. The first flight was from Victoria to Edmonton and the second one was to Regina.  We had a great little lunch in Edmonton Airport before we were back in the air.

We landed on time in Regina and headed over to pick-up a rental car for 3 days. With the rental car packed with our bags we were reroute to the University of Regina. It was a nice drive to the University. The weather here is great, so hot.

We checked in with Tim and the other organizers of the CYAID Conference and they showed us to our room. They have us in the dorm which is very nice as we have all the facilities we need.

We enjoyed the opening ceremonies for the conference and were pleasantly surprised at how many students are here. It’s great to see so many students passionate about preventing inquiry or death from impaired driving.

Tomorrow I will be presenting to the entire conference which I am very pleased to be a part of.

Now I shall get some rest. Thank you again for reading block.

Day Four on Coastal Tour

// May 6th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving

Today was another great day on the road. I woke up at my sister-in-law’s place and got ready and headed to Starbucks for my Americano and breakfast sandwich. I was on the road today by 8:30am and the weather wasn’t too good but it wasn’t raining so I’m happy.

I arrived at the school about 9:30am and had a great meeting with the principal and Christian who is the teacher who has organized the presentation. It was nice to sit and talk with them as this shows me they are truly there to help their students.

We then headed over to the gym where I was to present. Once the sound test was done I was happy as everything was working perfect. The teacher who was doing the sound advised he was running around all morning getting things together. I told him I appreciate him having everything setup.

Don arrived before the presentation and we had a great chat as I haven’t seen him for some time. Don is one of the ICBC Road Sense Coordinators. The students all filed in the gym by 10:20am and we were able to start on time. Christian introduced Don from ICBC and Don introduced me. The presentation went well again but really was there any doubt. I truly love presenting as this does make everything seem like there is a purpose for everything I have gone through. I do believe this and that’s why I do these presentations.

There weren’t a lot of questions today from the students but that’s ok because I could tell by their reaction that they really got the message. I later got an email from Christian and he advised that there was a lot of positive feedback from the students and that’s really all we can hope for.

The rest of the day was very quiet and now it’s time for bed. Tomorrow I have two presentations, one is at Abbotsford school of Integrated Arts (ASIA) in Abbotsford, BC in the morn and Heritage Park Secondary in the afternoon.

Again thanks for reading my blog.

Day Three on Coastal Tour

// May 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

Today was another great day on the road. It started to look like there was going to be some bad weather but I guess it blew out to sea. I woke up this morn at the nice Tucker B&B and had a nice lazy start to my day. The breakfast at the B&B was great and I loved the fresh fruit cut up and arranged into a funny smiling face and the pepper omelet.

Well I got on the road at about 9:30am and quickly stopped to get a nice cup of coffee at a local coffee shop in Sechelt. The further I drove down the coast the better the weather got. It makes it so much better to drive a long trip when the weather is nice. I love opening the moon-roof in my car with all the windows open and driving down the road with the wind in my hair.  It’s crazy since my car crash as I always need the windows open as I drive as the cool air keeps my skin nice and cool.

I arrived at the Elphinstone Secondary School in Gibsons, BC around 10am and was able to get setup around 10:30. Today I was presenting in the gym so by the time the students all left the gym I was able to complete my sound test which was great as there were no dead spots or feedback spots. These spots can really turn a presentation into a bad presentation quickly.

With all the students finally settled into the gym, we were able to get started on time. I kinda feel back because they had a nice student introduce me and I guess they gave him my bio and was just going to have him read that. I then advised him there was a prepared intro by ICBC which he needed to read and the nice nervous student I think his name was Jessie only had a couple mins to read it over and then was thrown into the intro but he did a great job. Thanks Jessie for the great intro. The presentation went really well and there were a lot of great questions, more than normal. You can tell how a presentation went sometimes by the questions they ask. “Mr Westhaver did you have any brain damage after the crash?” I had to stop and think for a second, do I sound like I could possibly have brain damage. Ok stop your laughing because I know those that know me are rolling on the floor laughing. It was a great question because a lot of time when people are in severe car crashes there is brain damage. They actually had to check me for brain damage after the car crash while I was in the drug induced coma. Then I woke from the coma and I think they were rethinking the results as it stated there was no brain damage.  Sorry guys that just me, I’m a little off.

Well after the presentation I packed up and headed for the ferry back to Vancouver as I present in Abbotsford tomorrow. It only took me like 10 mins to get to the ferry and was able to get on the 12:30pm ferry. Mmmm you gotta love ferry food, hey I was hungry so I ate it. Once I was off the ferry and headed to my sister-in-laws house traffic seem to flow pretty good, not like it does when you come off the ferry and head into Victoria.

I arrived at my sister-in-laws place and she invited me to go to the gym and work out with her. I decided to tag along to the gym and after about 30 mins on the treadmill and 20 mins of working out I was thankful she invited me as I needed to work out bad. Lately my knee has been bothering me a lot when I run, so now I stretch more before and after and also do interval running which is running for a bit then walking then running and that seems to be helping my knee.

After that nice workout we can back to her place and had salad and pizza for supper with the kids. Now it’s time to relax and enjoy the evening as for tomorrow I only have one presentation and that is at MEI Secondary in Abbotsford, BC.

Again thanks for reading my blog and laughing with me. “Come on back yall real soon”.

Day Two on Coastal Tour

// May 4th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Awareness, burn, Drinking & Driving, Survivor

Today was a great day on the road. I woke at Francis Point B&B in the Pender Harbor Area and had fresh fruit and eggs and bacon and coffee for breakfast. It was a great start to a great day.

I went over to Pender Harbour Secondary School in Madeira Park, BC this morn and presented to the entire Secondary school(grades 7-12). Once we setup the equipment and finished our sound test the students all filed into the gymnasium where I was going to presenting at. Once the presentation started the sound would not start and even with the help of one of the techie students, there was no sound. Finally after a few minutes the teacher who was doing the sound test came in and bam the sound came back on. He later told me that he muted the sound on the main soundboard.

The students were great and very engaging but I guess when you have a great speaker presenting it’s hard to not be engaged. I think someone has a bit of an ego but that’s ok I’m my biggest fan. The students ask some great questions after the presentation which is good because you know they are getting the message. I just hope they remember what I had to say for a long time and even more than that I truly hope it helps them make the right choice. If I help one student that’s great but I hope to help them all.

After the presentation I drove down to Sechelt and had lunch at a great little soup and sandwich place called Mama’s Gelato Desserts & Sandwiches. I had a great curry squash soup and pizza Panini.

Around 12noon I headed over to Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt, BC for my presentation at 1pm. Once we had the equipment setup and sound test done I waited for the students to arrive. We had grades 11”s and 12”s attend this presentation and again the students were very engaged. The sound was good for this presentation and everything went great. Again after the presentation we had a lot of great questions. It always makes me feel good when the students ask great question as it means they are really listening.

After the presentation I went and checked into my next B&B here on the sunshine coast. This time I checked into the Tucker Inn B&B in Sechelt. It seems to be a great B&B and even has a hot tub. I then went for a driver and had something to eat at Gilligan’s Pub because I love pub food. After the great meal I went for walk along the beach and wow what a beautiful place Sechelt is. It was totally awesome to have a beautiful sunny day to enjoy this beautiful coastal town of Sechelt which originally called Chatelech which is native.

Well I’m back at the B&B now and going to relax in the hot tub for a few before heading off to bed. Tomorrow I will be presenting at Elphinstone Secondary School in Gibsons, BC and then off to the ferry and back to Vancouver.

Again thanks for reading my blog and come back often as I never sit still and am always travel.