Kevin Saunders - About - There's Always a Way - Never Give Up!

Vote for Kevin Saunders nominated for Chairman of the President’s Fitness Council
March 2010

Kevin Saunders 1st wheelchair person for Chairman President’s Fitness Council and Kevin Saunders 1st person with a disability for chairman President’s Fitness Council wants to push through all 50 states in his wheelchair promoting fitness4all by visiting schools with a motivational message and by handing out personal daily accountability personal journals for the students to set their long and short term goals for education, fitness and making healthy choices so they can see that their goals are not accomplished in days or even weeks but usually month and even years. I think Kevin Saunders being a world champion Paralympic Athlete and one of the top 100 motivational speakers in America gives him an excellent opportunity to succeed and reduce the obesity epidemic in America.

The President’s Fitness Council would be greatly helped with Kevin Saunders leading them. With Kevin Saunders’ experience under two previous President’s Fitness Councils he has the background to get the job done right. As a former fitness champion, speaker, leader and motivational coach for Kansas State University football team who had the “Greatest turn-around in college football history” Kevin fits the needs to help lead the PCPFS and help America shape up!

Kevin Saunders has learned how to lead others to success. As Chairman of the President’s Fitness Council and the first disabled nominee Kevin Saunders will lead the Council to greater heights than ever before. As one of the first nominees Kevin Saunders will promote fitness to kids in schools across America. Kevin Saunders was nominated by US Senator, Pat Roberts this fall because he believes Kevin will be able to significantly reduce the obesity epidemic in America and that makes Kevin Saunders the best choice for the job of Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports.
Kevin Saunders as Chairman of the fitness council for the President will be a great leader to improve accountability for fitness in America. The President needs a man like Kevin Saunders a world champion Paralympian who was paralyzed from the chest down in one of the worst explosions in Texas history. The Obama administration will need to get a letter of support from each of us to support Kevin Saunders as his next selection for Chairman of his Fitness Council.

Kevin Saunders can be the next Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports - PCPFS with your support letter to the President and Secretary Sebelius. With your support Kevin Saunders will be able take the lead over other possible nominees or possible choices for President. When it comes to the President’s choices for Chairman of his fitness council he wants a Chairman who will help reduce obesity in our youth across America. Kevin has a plan to help motivate students across America to be accountable using their daily accountability journals for setting their long and short term goals for education, fitness and making healthy choices and making plans to reach those goals and refine them as they go by seeing what works best!
So, let’s all work to make Kevin Saunders the first choice to lead President’s Fitness Council. The President’s choices to lead Fitness Council should include a person like Kevin Saunders a who was injured in one of the worst explosion in Texas history. In an explosion that completely destroyed the building Kevin Saunders was in leaving nothing but the concrete foundation and hurling him through the roof over 300 feet (the length of a football field onto a concrete parking lot) not expected to live and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down for life and confined to a wheelchair. Most would have given up, but Kevin Saunders went on to become the world’s greatest all-around wheelchair athlete.

When Kevin visit’s a school and students see him in a wheelchair his paralyzed body from the chest down bears silent testimony to one who has overcome incredible odds and beckons others to follow. Kevin Saunders is the best Presidential Fitness Council nominations for Chairman possible. As one of the nominees Kevin Saunders can help make America more fit.

When Kevin Saunders was nominated for Chairman he vowed to push his wheelchair through all 50 states promoting health and fitness. When it comes to your considerations for Chairman - of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports – PCPFS think about Kevin Saunders and how his story of tragedy to triumph makes him the best choice to make. You can see more about Kevin at www.KevinSaunders.com or got to www.Wikipedia.org (Type in Kevin Saunders) to see a short encyclopedia type BIO about Kevin. The President’s selections for fitness council are extremely important to help improve our nation’s health crisis. Obama’s fitness council with the right Chairman can improve America’s fitness level. With Kevin Saunders as our next Chairman of the President’s Fitness Council he can lead a revolution in America one community, one school district, one state at a time and help improve fitness and sports participation for all levels of society across America.

Send your support letters for Kevin Saunders for Chairman to:

President Obama / Presidential Personnel RE: Chairman PCPFS
THE WHITE HOUSE
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500

and cc that same letter of support to:

Ms. Kathleen Sebelius Secretary Health and Human Services – HHS
200 Independence Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20201

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
You will get a letter back from THE WHITE HOUSE because your opinion and your VOTE COUNTS!!!!

Kevin Saunders nominated for chairman of President’s Fitness Council wants to follow First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity on his Fitness 4 All 50 State Tour
March, 2010

2010 – The Kansas Senate unanimously passed Senate Resolution No. 1819 sponsored by Senator Janis Lee adopted by the entire SENATE body, supporting Kevin Saunders for the position of chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports. After the reading of the Resolution the Senate & guests gave tribute to Mr. Saunders with 5 minutes of applause for his accomplishments and to support him to become the next chairman of the President’s Fitness Council.” Click here to read Senate Resolution

Kevin Saunders plan as chairman includes following up on what Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger started over 20 years ago as Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports when he visited all 50 states to advocate for daily, quality physical education and fitness. Kevin formed the non-profit corporation entitled’ Fitness 4 All 50 state tour and plans when appointed chairman to also follow First Lady, Michelle Obama’s lead fighting childhood obesity and support her; “Let’s Move” campaign.” Governor Schwarzenegger’s quote about Kevin says it best! “Kevin’s broken body bears silent testimony to one who has overcome tremendous obstacles to get fit and beckons others to follow.” — California Governor Schwarzenegger

Kevin Saunders will visit all 50 states with a plan to encourage schools and school districts, students, parents, teachers and administrators, city and state officials to become lifelong supporters of the initiative to create accountability for fitness education, increased fitness activities and providing healthier choices. Kevin wants to get students and parents involved with frequent PTA meetings with the support of National healthy food vendors and fitness leaders to help the diverse at risk populations to learn how to incorporate eating healthy and exercising into their everyday lives. Also providing students and parents with information and education on how to properly read and understand food labels. The National healthy food vendors will help by providing free coupons as incentives for healthy foods, simple recipes and shopping tips to students and parents. Part of this plan involves helping students and parents understand how they can buy healthy foods and prepare them together as a family at a lesser cost and how it is better for you than eating out at fast food or convenience stores all of the time.

Kevin will be criss-crossing each state with his team to share his motivational message of how fitness, eating right and making healthier choices gave him his life back after being blown over 300 feet through the air onto a concrete parking lot. Leaving him hospitalized for almost a year. Kevin found himself paralyzed from the chest down with no core balance when he reentered mainstream life. Kevin Saunders came back to become a world champion wheelchair athlete earning the title “World’s greatest all-around wheelchair athlete” and became one of the top motivational speakers in America. Kevin will share his message of “Tragedy to Triumph” with students in big, medium and small school districts across each state in America. Kevin also wants to provide students with daily accountability journals so they can set their short & long term goals for the education, fitness & making healthier choices.

Kevin will follow the administrations lead to encourage school districts to buy into the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign using preventative measures for obesity by providing healthier choices improved fitness and activities all students can take part in. Kevin will also meet with Mayors, City Councils and community leaders and concerned citizens and state Governors and their Health & Human Services staff to get them on board to provide the partnerships with corporate and business leaders. In order to help provide and raise the funds necessary to build the lifelong support mechanism that will promote and provide the fitness education and activities, healthy eating choices necessary to help maintain a lasting permanent change to reduce childhood obesity. Kevin wants to help cut down on the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent by our national health care system on obesity related diseases.

Kevin learned firsthand after working with Head Coach, Bill Snyder and being part of the “Greatest turnaround in college football history” that you have to get the student / athletes to buy into the program. Then you have to get the University President and Board of Regents and other university leaders to buy in as well and help provide the support and funds necessary to help Kansas State University compete with other major Division-1 football programs in America. Then you have to get the support of the Alumni to financially support your goals as well as businesses like Nike for uniforms and many others. You have to also get people to see things differently in Kansas State football that was Coach Snyder convincing people after only 4 winning seasons from WWII to 1990 Kansas State only had 4 winning seasons. The 5 years prior to Head Coach Bill Snyder’s arrival the football team had only won 4 games. As you can imagine convincing people they could win football games and become champions in football at Kansas State took not only a great plan, leadership it took a great deal of effort in many different areas to truly make a lasting winning change for the better.
By getting everyone working together for a common goal to improve fitness education, activities and making and providing healthier choices for our youth we can win the fight against childhood obesity in America!

About Kevin's work with The President's Council on Physical Fitness

In October, Kevin Saunders (Downs, Kansas) became the first person with a disability in its 35-year history to be named to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (PCPFS). Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole (KS) introduced Saunders, a world renown wheelchair athlete, to then President George Bush, and personally requested that the President appoint Saunders to the PCPFS. The White House accepted Dole's recommendation for appointment to the high-profile panel chaired by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

When the new administration was elected, I was honored to be the only person reappointed to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports by President Clinton to serve again on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, where I remained for both terms of his presidency. I found him to be not only a bright, charismatic leader, but also a warm and friendly person. Moreover, he believed in our goals. He said he wanted each American to have more dedication to their families, themselves, their communities, and their country. Along with this, the President also impressed upon me what he expected from each member of The President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports, and what a tremendous responsibility it was. He offered this as an encouragement, rather than a challenge. He communicated his faith in my ability to go above and beyond the call of duty to find a way to get the job done the right way. I’m proud to say that under his leadership, we continued to make progress on fitness as a public issue, working with the Surgeon General to help establish the warning label that states “The lack of physical activity may be hazardous to your health.”

The appointment to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness came because Bill Clinton and I really enjoyed stimulating conversations and visiting with one another. President Clinton has great respect for someone could achieve with a disability when they were completely paralyzed from the chest down (with no core balance) like me. This ended up being one of the big springboards in my life as a motivational coach and inspirational speaker, college speaker, business speaker, inspirational coach, corporate speaker, business safety speaker, corporate safety speaker, church speaker or christian speaker and an expert on overcoming adversity. It gave me the continuing opportunities with President Clinton's President's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports to talk to thousands of schools, organizations, groups and sports teams like football teams, basketball teams, track & field and rugby teams around the country that I might not have been able to without it. Being a motivational speaker and coach, church speaker, college speaker, corporate speaker, inspirational speaker, and safety speaker is something I love doing and especially doing school tours promoting individual student responsibility for fitness, financial, academic and food choices to be and become a thrilling contributor to their community and not a dependent on it! And education in the areas of academics, how to eat right, what kind of cardio exercise, strength training and plyometric training you need is important to help you become a success not only in school but in life. This is a huge part of what I do now.

Paralyzed from the chest down more than a decade ago in a tragic grain elevator explosion, Saunders has overcome adversity. Through extensive exercise and weight training programs he worked hard to become a Paralympic medallist in Seoul and Barcelona. Saunders, a graduate of Kansas State University, competes in marathons, is a four-time Pan American games gold medallist and multiple world record holder, and earned the title of the best All Around Athlete when he set a world pentathlon record during the 1990 World Championships in Assen, Netherlands.

Saunders is the founder of the Wheelchair Success Fund to give other individuals in wheelchairs support and motivation they need to get involved and contribute to their communities. His Live Your Dreams project takes him into schools and hospitals nationwide where he shares his inspirational message with young people, gives out gold medals to encourage youngsters to stay in school, and helps those in hospitals turn their negatives into positives.

Saunders first demonstrated his tremendous civic pride and generosity when, from his accident settlement, he donated a running track to his old high school in Downs, KS. The upgraded facilities were instrumental in the high school track team winning the state championship.

Dole said of Saunders, "Kevin has beaten all the odds to become one of the premier athletes in the world. This dynamic man from the heartland of America is also one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. As a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, Kevin will now join forces with Arnold Schwarzenegger to spread his uplifting message of self-improvement, hard work, and hope. Thanks to Kevin, more Americans--able and disabled alike--will be inspired to reach their fullest potential." In a statement at the time of his appointment, Saunders said, "There is some level of physical fitness that can be attained by everyone. People with disabilities have just as much right to achieve physical fitness as anyone else. I will strive to represent the needs of these Americans. I accept this appointment as a challenge to inspire all people to take an active role in achieving health and fitness."

Jan Wilson (Colorado Springs, Colorado) has been named Coordinator of Disabled Sports Programs for the United States Olympic Committee, becoming the first full-time person devoted to sports programs for persons with disabilities. Wilson, who worked as the Summer Competition Manager for the National Handicapped Sports organization in Colorado Springs since January, 1991, will serve as liaison overseeing grants and athlete assistance programs, coordinating U.S. Paralympic Team programs, and monitoring government issues for the seven disabled sports organizations within USOC.

Wilson, a former elite disabled athlete herself, has also worked as executive director of the U.S. Amputee Athletic Association (Charlotte, NC) (1989-90), as supervisor for Jefferson Pilot Life Insurance (Greensboro, NC) (1985-89), and as a home health services social worker for the Forsyth Country Department of Social Services (Winston-Salem, NC) (1981-85). She received her bachelor of arts degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 1978 and has also pursued a master's degree in adapted physical education from UNC-Greensboro.