Curtis Hargrove Inspires Kids at Dr B for ME TO WE DAY

Local philanthropist, Curtis Hargrove, visited the students at Dr. Brosseau Middle School in Bonnyville for the first-ever Me to We Day, on Wednesday March 2nd. To help inspire the kids to think of  “We” Curtis told tales of his fundraising adventures including his famous run across Canada, in 2012, and last year’s run to California. As the runner explains, “it’s all about Me to We, to be the change.”

“That’s what I grew up doing, I took my passion of runner and helping people and put it together,” Curtis, who is from Cold Lake, started small with local charity runs or marathons and worked his way up to a cross-Canada run to raise money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. From there he participated in multiple charity runs and events, locally he was a cast-away in Survivor Lakeland for two years in a row, 2014 & 2015. Then at the end of the summer of 2015, Curtis ran to California with the hopes of meeting Ellen DeGeneres and delivering a hand-made blanket to raise awareness for Hugginz by Angel.

I love going into schools because these kids are going to be our leaders of tomorrow. We want these kids to grow up to make this community a great place to live in! – Curtis Hargrove Philanthropist

“I touched base with the kids on adversity and hardships,” Curtis had a few snags along his cross-Canadian run, including being arrested in Quebec for not having the proper permits and weather delays which set the run back a few months. His trip to California raised a lot of awareness for Hugginz by Angel, but unfortunately, Curtis was not able to hand-deliver the blanket to Ellen. Curtis gave the student lessons on bouncing back or getting over the nay-sayers, there were “times in my life where I was told I wouldn’t be able to do it, just because I wasn’t physically ready for it or it’s just not possible.”

One of the most important lessons Curtis taught the kids, “you can do anything you put your mind to. After all those things I’ve gone through in my life, you truly can do anything you put your mind to. A lot of people might be put down or told you’re too young to do that, it doesn’t matter what anybody tells you, it matters what you believe in.” Curtis took that philosophy and ran with it, quite literally, “I chose running because that’s a passion of mine. You might not have to do physical activity to make your goal, you could love helping the environment or seniors or animals. It doesn’t necessarily have to be physical activity to make a change.”

There’s tons of ways you can make a change out there! – Curtis Hargrove Philanthropist

“You can really tell the kids love paying attention, they love asking questions, and just the energy inside the building,” Me to We Day was filled with dancing and singing, explains Curtis, “it’s great to see a group of kids get together. That’s what Me to We is all about, doing it together as a team, to make a difference in the world.” Curtis was impressed with the interaction and presentations made by the students at Dr. B, “there were a lot of students who had made power point presentations and it was great to see how well presented those were and how well spoken the kids were.”

“They talked about perfection and how some people view perfection differently and is perfection real,” Curtis had a take-away from the kids that he’ll carry with him, “obviously, perfection isn’t real, because not everybody’s perfect and no one’s ever going to be perfect, but it’s the way we view life and how we do things.” Curtis says the kids’ presentations really resonated with him, “we want to try to do things successfully. They talked about people who time and time again failed at things, but they kept trying and they succeeded.It was really inspiring.”

Up next for Curtis is training for the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache. Finishing the race is a personal goal for Curtis and this time around he won’t be raising money for a charity. According to the Canadian Death Race Website, “Elite racers have come to the Canadian Rockies to cheat Death in one of the world’s toughest adventure races. The 125 km course begins and ends on a 4200 foot plateau, passes over three mountain summits and includes over 17,000 feet of elevation change and a major river crossing at the spectacular Hell’s Gate canyon at the confluence of the Smoky and Sulphur Rivers.  Extreme athletes, individually and in relays, push themselves to the limits of their endurance against the breathtaking background of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Each year, well-trained and totally committed, they battle heat, cold, altitude and themselves.”

Curtis will be speaking on March 18th, at the Lakeland Inn, Pink Tie Service for Bullying. For more on Curtis Hargrove, like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.