Kids at Marion Schilling Elementary in Valleyview are learning a bit about resilience this month as part of their curriculum.

Kamloops man Stu Wymer has been teaching students there wheelchair sports; he’s been a quadraplegic since a car crash 11 years ago.

“I was in a coma for 12 weeks and then when I woke up it was another eight months in rehab before I even got home. And then as soon as I got home, I got introduced to a couple guys in town who played (wheelchair) basketball. So I started basketball pretty much the first week I was home.”

Teacher Jennifer Jones says one takeaway she’s heard her students say this week is that “no one is better than anybody else.”

“‘It doesn’t matter what you’re situation is, we’re all here together,’ kind of thing,” Jones says.

Grade 3 student Abigail says playing sports with Stu was eye-opening for her and her class; “he taught us, focus on what we can do and not what we can’t do.”

Wymer is spending the week working with all students at Marion Schilling. He says the experience is rewarding for him and “humbling” for students.

“When they think something’s easy you can add a simple challenge of a ball, ask them to throw it. And a lot of them didn’t realize how hard it was to do when you disengage your core to actually make a basket. It goes from very simple to ‘wow, how do you?'”