I hate run I hate it that’s the honest
truth
I really really hate it it’s painful
it’s pointless at times it seems like
it’s just gonna go on forever but the
ironic thing is that running long
distance running has become the most
important part of my professional life I
would probably say it’s become the
defining characteristic of who I am as a
educator as a leader as a coach as a
father as a son as an uncle it’s defined
Who I am it dictates my pedagogy it
dictates my philosophy that portable
that you see is called the street front
alternative program Street Front is a
junior alternative program fixed to
Britannia Secondary just on the
easternmost part of the Downtown
Eastside I teach kids from grade 8 to 10
ages 12 to 17 and just like every other
school we teach the the basic subjects
but we have a very very specific subject
that is the core and it’s the
fundamental and the framework of what I
believe in is education we have a
mandatory running program three days a
week Monday Wednesday and Friday at
10:30 to 11:30 every single student
every single staff member gets up and
gets out there and starts to hit the
pavement it’s non-negotiable it’s what
we do it’s not boot camp it’s never
punitive it’s therapeutic at its highest
level and what we get out there is we
get to witness the idea of industry
rigor and merit and we teach the kids
how to be successful the kids that I
teach are not necessarily successful
it’s a junior alternative program it’s
an alternative program for a reason we
have to do things differently there on a
tradition or a non-traditional academic
path we need to reignite a passion in a
sense of purpose a sense of self-worth a
defining characteristic of who these
kids generally are because they’re
failing they’re not failing themselves
the system isn’t supporting them the way
they need to so it’s my job to get them
to run and it’s my job to make sure they
don’t stop why do we choose running well
we chose running because of its
simplicity it doesn’t take much if
you’re able-bodied you can get out there
and run and what it teaches you is
everything that we believe some kids are
lacking dedication commitment and pursue
there is no cheerleader to cheer you on
there’s no ball to entertain you there’s
no net
there’s no clock that says it’s time to
be done all there is is the distance and
the distance is the metaphor that we
talk about it’s the motion it’s the
inertia of moving forward and
accomplishing our goals I bran I think
probably well over 2,000 10-kilometer
runs with these kids 50 full marathons
probably 50 half marathons but more
importantly I probably logged 5,000
hours listening to these kids talking to
these kids picking these kids up when
they’re breaking and celebrating when
they’re succeeding that’s just my life
it’s nothing it’s not a staged photo
that’s just what we do and they run
because we’ve taught them that through
their efforts they’ll achieve greatness
they don’t believe it at the start they
don’t it’s painful and it’s hard but
they give the idea that we can make it
it’s gonna happen there’s the first boy
that really took the bait his name’s
Marissa Garcia was a 14 year old boy
little guy from Bolivia and he came and
he was just a wonderful kid who said yes
in my life I could maybe try to afford
the time to go to Pilates or go to a
spin class but these kids finding a home
finding food finding security and safety
that trumps everything so to get them to
believe in long distance east band kids
running in their jeans and it like that
trust me I’ve offered like polypropylene
tights and Nike dri-fit shirts they
won’t wear them they’re wearing their
jeans and their skateboard shoes they’ll
give me their effort but they won’t give
me their probably that’s okay I can live
with it
I still do back in 19 years ago it was
what it was but Mauricio said yes so we
started training and training and
training and we started in September and
it came to about the end of October and
I was going this kids really got the
goods we can run tens easily there’s
nothing and we’re bringing a few kids
along but I thought we got to do
something special this kids really doing
it thought the Sun run yeah I thought no
not the Sun when 55,000 people do it
there’s a whole bunch of high school
kids that’s nothing special so I looked
through the calendar and guess what we
found the vent or the Seattle Marathon
American Thanksgiving the very end of
November it’s perfect we got two and a
half months which if you’re a marathoner
that’s really enough but that’s ok we do
things a bit differently alternative
school we’re gonna make it happen and we
start running and he had and one
basketball shoes and ones at Brandis
been passed on they were slip-ons so
well that’s what he had and they fit so
we’re gonna run and I said you want to
go do it and he goes sure he doesn’t
know he does nothing no reference point
for a marathon it’s just longer than the
ten so we go across I don’t know how we
got across the border but we did stayed
in a horrible hotel for and we did that
for the next 15 years we saw a yeah Ming
played against the Seattle SuperSonics
Shoei how long ago they’re not there
anymore
and on a Sunday morning at 7:30 we
slipped his shoes on we went out and the
only expectation was we were going to do
this together we were going to succeed
and we went out for hours and 18 minutes
later he crosses the finish line as a 14
year old the next youngest was 17 it was
like the spotlight was so concentrated
everybody it was all you coming and
hugging him he’s like why okay yeah
thanks and but he didn’t understand what
he had accomplished and he had that
medal and he was the start he came back
and we used that medal it was like an
elixir look what we did
and we showed videos and we talked about
running and we the psychology of running
dominated our school and before I knew
it two two three five kids were running
marathons it was getting so great we
decided let’s expand it let’s have half
marathons come in and then the girls
started to think you know what I can put
away those feelings of not looking as
beautiful as I need to or I could be
sweaty and I could still be proud and we
started to sell that idea and that
commitment and I was on every single run
with these kids I’ve never missed a run
not once because in their lives they’ve
had too many people that have because of
the just the tragedies of their lives
have not been able to support them the
way they need so once we got mauricio
things started to change and it
blossomed and it blossomed and it
blossomed and all the gains that we had
that we found in the running world
started to apply into the academic world
the risks these kids were willing to
take started to just blow up these kids
they’re at risk youth they are the most
risk averse kids you can ever imagine
they are so nervous that somebody’s
going to judge them the veneer that they
have is like a suit of armor they’re so
nervous that they’re not going to make
it and our entire job was to break that
down that edifice was going to be
replaced by an idea that we’re going to
stand up tall and we were going
make something of this and how are we
gonna do it we’re gonna work we’re not
gonna feel sorry for yourself we’re not
gonna talk about where we came from
we’re gonna talk about where we’re going
and we’re gonna do it we’re gonna do it
with pride and there’s the results we’ve
created the largest cohort of
high-school marathon runners in the
world that requires everything we talked
about dedication commitment and
perseverance look at all those families
and that is just that’s everything to me
that’s the families the families that
weren’t there at the start for the first
ten years I finished every marathon
there was one person that was there at
every finish line my dad my dad took
photos of all these kids and he
celebrated with him and hugged him and
we’re from Saskatchewan we’re not too
good at the hugging but we’re trying and
we’re doing all that and we’re getting
her going and it’s a magical moment but
I was so pissed off where were these
families where were the people to
celebrate with these kids well that
changed look at that look at Emily Lloyd
she came as a broken girl to our school
beautiful kid but so much sadness and so
much dysfunction in her life and she
came to Street front with a hope she
said I want to run a marathon and this
is from I saw her PE records I’m telling
no PE teacher was thinking she was gonna
have that but she came with the vision
because her friends had come to the
school and I thought well okay why not
you’re no different than the rest of
them let’s give it a shot and she worked
and she worked and she dropped and she
rose and she cried and again the
psychology and the brutality of
long-distance running is it’s a
challenging thing but she did it look at
the picture of her and her mum and I
thought you know what if we can do this
let’s do something even bigger even
ballsier what can we do so we decided to
take on a really big endeavor we decided
to create the largest field study in
Canadian history the little Street for
an alternative program on the corner of
the Downtown Eastside affixed to a
school that always gets marginalizing it
should never Britannia secondaries the
greatest high school you’ll ever get you
and I guarantee that’s the truth and we
decided to do this over ten years ten
years we are going to go to five
continents and embark on five major
international expeditions now that’s a
lot of money five continents like we
have a difficult time getting to
Kamloops but we have a story and we
earned it so we came up with this idea
we thought you know what what’s the
first place we want to go to my lovely
administrator of the principle of
Britannia secondary dr. Andrew Schofield
from Africa he came up with an idea
let’s climb Mount Kilimanjaro it’s never
been done in a public school system in
North America can you believe it
from the Downtown Eastside 15 kids they
know what Africa smells like they know
what it tastes like they know they felt
the glaciers on the top we can never
take that away from them their lives may
go in the worst of directions but it
doesn’t matter when they’re 35 and they
pick up Lion King and they’re about to
read it to their kid they’ve been there
they’ve been at Pride Rock we slept on
the Serengeti we had a leopard up in the
trees I came out of my tent and ran
headfirst into a giraffe
I’m from Swift Current Saskatchewan
there’s not a lot of giraffes where I
come from ok we decided to come back
fundraise run marathons keep it rolling
keep it going and guess what next one so
that was in 2015 this was four months
ago so he decided to go to one of the
most famous national parks in the world
the furthest most southernmost point in
the world outside of Antarctica we went
to Patagonia Chile and that’s not
photoshopped my friend barri skill and
set the camera up we took it literally
40 minutes it was a nightmare trying to
keep these kids like herding cats but we
did it and it was unbelievable and even
better than the backpacking through one
of the most unbelievable landscapes in
the world was having the courage of
these kids to go up into a tiny port on
a tell us to go into a grocery store and
try to buy the ingredients for a
sandwich in their broken Spanish I’ve
taken these kids across the other side
of Vancouver and they don’t feel
comfortable walking into another West
Side high school it’s nothing to do with
the high school they just feel out of
place but we had taught them that they
are proud and they deserve to breathe
the air of Champions and they walked
into those places and they didn’t care
if they made a mistake and guess what
more often than not they came out with
ham and cheese sometimes they came out
with head cheese and that’s an issue
we’ll talk another time but look at that
like that’s like like we got there my
best field trip as a high school student
I went to the archery range
that was it it was a one’s own transfer
bus in Saskatoon Saskatchewan
look what 15 kids got to do and that’s
my life and if you look at the smiles
and Krista and Connor on justice on
beylin on gorge on eben and that’s just
an average day let’s go run and that’s
what I get
I’m a lucky lucky man my name’s Trevor
Stokes teach of speed for an alternative
program
[Music]
[Applause]
truth
I really really hate it it’s painful
it’s pointless at times it seems like
it’s just gonna go on forever but the
ironic thing is that running long
distance running has become the most
important part of my professional life I
would probably say it’s become the
defining characteristic of who I am as a
educator as a leader as a coach as a
father as a son as an uncle it’s defined
Who I am it dictates my pedagogy it
dictates my philosophy that portable
that you see is called the street front
alternative program Street Front is a
junior alternative program fixed to
Britannia Secondary just on the
easternmost part of the Downtown
Eastside I teach kids from grade 8 to 10
ages 12 to 17 and just like every other
school we teach the the basic subjects
but we have a very very specific subject
that is the core and it’s the
fundamental and the framework of what I
believe in is education we have a
mandatory running program three days a
week Monday Wednesday and Friday at
10:30 to 11:30 every single student
every single staff member gets up and
gets out there and starts to hit the
pavement it’s non-negotiable it’s what
we do it’s not boot camp it’s never
punitive it’s therapeutic at its highest
level and what we get out there is we
get to witness the idea of industry
rigor and merit and we teach the kids
how to be successful the kids that I
teach are not necessarily successful
it’s a junior alternative program it’s
an alternative program for a reason we
have to do things differently there on a
tradition or a non-traditional academic
path we need to reignite a passion in a
sense of purpose a sense of self-worth a
defining characteristic of who these
kids generally are because they’re
failing they’re not failing themselves
the system isn’t supporting them the way
they need to so it’s my job to get them
to run and it’s my job to make sure they
don’t stop why do we choose running well
we chose running because of its
simplicity it doesn’t take much if
you’re able-bodied you can get out there
and run and what it teaches you is
everything that we believe some kids are
lacking dedication commitment and pursue
there is no cheerleader to cheer you on
there’s no ball to entertain you there’s
no net
there’s no clock that says it’s time to
be done all there is is the distance and
the distance is the metaphor that we
talk about it’s the motion it’s the
inertia of moving forward and
accomplishing our goals I bran I think
probably well over 2,000 10-kilometer
runs with these kids 50 full marathons
probably 50 half marathons but more
importantly I probably logged 5,000
hours listening to these kids talking to
these kids picking these kids up when
they’re breaking and celebrating when
they’re succeeding that’s just my life
it’s nothing it’s not a staged photo
that’s just what we do and they run
because we’ve taught them that through
their efforts they’ll achieve greatness
they don’t believe it at the start they
don’t it’s painful and it’s hard but
they give the idea that we can make it
it’s gonna happen there’s the first boy
that really took the bait his name’s
Marissa Garcia was a 14 year old boy
little guy from Bolivia and he came and
he was just a wonderful kid who said yes
in my life I could maybe try to afford
the time to go to Pilates or go to a
spin class but these kids finding a home
finding food finding security and safety
that trumps everything so to get them to
believe in long distance east band kids
running in their jeans and it like that
trust me I’ve offered like polypropylene
tights and Nike dri-fit shirts they
won’t wear them they’re wearing their
jeans and their skateboard shoes they’ll
give me their effort but they won’t give
me their probably that’s okay I can live
with it
I still do back in 19 years ago it was
what it was but Mauricio said yes so we
started training and training and
training and we started in September and
it came to about the end of October and
I was going this kids really got the
goods we can run tens easily there’s
nothing and we’re bringing a few kids
along but I thought we got to do
something special this kids really doing
it thought the Sun run yeah I thought no
not the Sun when 55,000 people do it
there’s a whole bunch of high school
kids that’s nothing special so I looked
through the calendar and guess what we
found the vent or the Seattle Marathon
American Thanksgiving the very end of
November it’s perfect we got two and a
half months which if you’re a marathoner
that’s really enough but that’s ok we do
things a bit differently alternative
school we’re gonna make it happen and we
start running and he had and one
basketball shoes and ones at Brandis
been passed on they were slip-ons so
well that’s what he had and they fit so
we’re gonna run and I said you want to
go do it and he goes sure he doesn’t
know he does nothing no reference point
for a marathon it’s just longer than the
ten so we go across I don’t know how we
got across the border but we did stayed
in a horrible hotel for and we did that
for the next 15 years we saw a yeah Ming
played against the Seattle SuperSonics
Shoei how long ago they’re not there
anymore
and on a Sunday morning at 7:30 we
slipped his shoes on we went out and the
only expectation was we were going to do
this together we were going to succeed
and we went out for hours and 18 minutes
later he crosses the finish line as a 14
year old the next youngest was 17 it was
like the spotlight was so concentrated
everybody it was all you coming and
hugging him he’s like why okay yeah
thanks and but he didn’t understand what
he had accomplished and he had that
medal and he was the start he came back
and we used that medal it was like an
elixir look what we did
and we showed videos and we talked about
running and we the psychology of running
dominated our school and before I knew
it two two three five kids were running
marathons it was getting so great we
decided let’s expand it let’s have half
marathons come in and then the girls
started to think you know what I can put
away those feelings of not looking as
beautiful as I need to or I could be
sweaty and I could still be proud and we
started to sell that idea and that
commitment and I was on every single run
with these kids I’ve never missed a run
not once because in their lives they’ve
had too many people that have because of
the just the tragedies of their lives
have not been able to support them the
way they need so once we got mauricio
things started to change and it
blossomed and it blossomed and it
blossomed and all the gains that we had
that we found in the running world
started to apply into the academic world
the risks these kids were willing to
take started to just blow up these kids
they’re at risk youth they are the most
risk averse kids you can ever imagine
they are so nervous that somebody’s
going to judge them the veneer that they
have is like a suit of armor they’re so
nervous that they’re not going to make
it and our entire job was to break that
down that edifice was going to be
replaced by an idea that we’re going to
stand up tall and we were going
make something of this and how are we
gonna do it we’re gonna work we’re not
gonna feel sorry for yourself we’re not
gonna talk about where we came from
we’re gonna talk about where we’re going
and we’re gonna do it we’re gonna do it
with pride and there’s the results we’ve
created the largest cohort of
high-school marathon runners in the
world that requires everything we talked
about dedication commitment and
perseverance look at all those families
and that is just that’s everything to me
that’s the families the families that
weren’t there at the start for the first
ten years I finished every marathon
there was one person that was there at
every finish line my dad my dad took
photos of all these kids and he
celebrated with him and hugged him and
we’re from Saskatchewan we’re not too
good at the hugging but we’re trying and
we’re doing all that and we’re getting
her going and it’s a magical moment but
I was so pissed off where were these
families where were the people to
celebrate with these kids well that
changed look at that look at Emily Lloyd
she came as a broken girl to our school
beautiful kid but so much sadness and so
much dysfunction in her life and she
came to Street front with a hope she
said I want to run a marathon and this
is from I saw her PE records I’m telling
no PE teacher was thinking she was gonna
have that but she came with the vision
because her friends had come to the
school and I thought well okay why not
you’re no different than the rest of
them let’s give it a shot and she worked
and she worked and she dropped and she
rose and she cried and again the
psychology and the brutality of
long-distance running is it’s a
challenging thing but she did it look at
the picture of her and her mum and I
thought you know what if we can do this
let’s do something even bigger even
ballsier what can we do so we decided to
take on a really big endeavor we decided
to create the largest field study in
Canadian history the little Street for
an alternative program on the corner of
the Downtown Eastside affixed to a
school that always gets marginalizing it
should never Britannia secondaries the
greatest high school you’ll ever get you
and I guarantee that’s the truth and we
decided to do this over ten years ten
years we are going to go to five
continents and embark on five major
international expeditions now that’s a
lot of money five continents like we
have a difficult time getting to
Kamloops but we have a story and we
earned it so we came up with this idea
we thought you know what what’s the
first place we want to go to my lovely
administrator of the principle of
Britannia secondary dr. Andrew Schofield
from Africa he came up with an idea
let’s climb Mount Kilimanjaro it’s never
been done in a public school system in
North America can you believe it
from the Downtown Eastside 15 kids they
know what Africa smells like they know
what it tastes like they know they felt
the glaciers on the top we can never
take that away from them their lives may
go in the worst of directions but it
doesn’t matter when they’re 35 and they
pick up Lion King and they’re about to
read it to their kid they’ve been there
they’ve been at Pride Rock we slept on
the Serengeti we had a leopard up in the
trees I came out of my tent and ran
headfirst into a giraffe
I’m from Swift Current Saskatchewan
there’s not a lot of giraffes where I
come from ok we decided to come back
fundraise run marathons keep it rolling
keep it going and guess what next one so
that was in 2015 this was four months
ago so he decided to go to one of the
most famous national parks in the world
the furthest most southernmost point in
the world outside of Antarctica we went
to Patagonia Chile and that’s not
photoshopped my friend barri skill and
set the camera up we took it literally
40 minutes it was a nightmare trying to
keep these kids like herding cats but we
did it and it was unbelievable and even
better than the backpacking through one
of the most unbelievable landscapes in
the world was having the courage of
these kids to go up into a tiny port on
a tell us to go into a grocery store and
try to buy the ingredients for a
sandwich in their broken Spanish I’ve
taken these kids across the other side
of Vancouver and they don’t feel
comfortable walking into another West
Side high school it’s nothing to do with
the high school they just feel out of
place but we had taught them that they
are proud and they deserve to breathe
the air of Champions and they walked
into those places and they didn’t care
if they made a mistake and guess what
more often than not they came out with
ham and cheese sometimes they came out
with head cheese and that’s an issue
we’ll talk another time but look at that
like that’s like like we got there my
best field trip as a high school student
I went to the archery range
that was it it was a one’s own transfer
bus in Saskatoon Saskatchewan
look what 15 kids got to do and that’s
my life and if you look at the smiles
and Krista and Connor on justice on
beylin on gorge on eben and that’s just
an average day let’s go run and that’s
what I get
I’m a lucky lucky man my name’s Trevor
Stokes teach of speed for an alternative
program
[Music]
[Applause]
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