WORK TOGETHER TO FIGHT DRUG PROBLEM, SAYS KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Michael Bortolotto is a self described rebel and he urged people at
Cowichan Lake to become rebels as well.

"Yes, I am a rebel," he told 250 people at the crystal meth forum in
Lake Cowichan last Wednesday night. "I want to turn you into rebels.
Rebels against drugs."

Bortolotto, who has cerebral palsy but hasn't let it slow him down,
said it's about rebelling in a positive way.

He referred to a drug house next to where he lives and how the drug
pushers thought he would be an easy target.

"Well, children can be easy pickings too," he said. "I believe that
when people come together, anything is possible. We need to tell
these people selling drugs, alcohol or cigarettes to children that
it's not acceptable."

Bortolotto, who as an inspirational speaker is known as the
Rubberband Man, said that since he was a kid he wanted to play
football, but because he has cerebral palsy he wasn't considered for it.

One day, though, he was asked to be a receiver in a pickup game. He
said he had one advantage over the defender: he didn't run in a straight line.

"In this community, there are some kids who don't run in a straight
line. That isn't necessarily a bad thing."

A problem for Bortolotto, though, was that he wasn't very good at
catching the ball. The solution was a new rule that if the ball hit
him in the chest it would be a first down.

During the game, as he was running, someone yelled his name. He
thought the play was over, so he turned around.

"And this object came down and hit me in the chest," he said. "It
felt like I'd been hit by a howitzer and it knocked me to the ground.

Someone said, 'First down, first down.'"

Then everyone in the game looked at Bortolotto and said, "How did you do that?"

"I said, 'I didn't do it, we all did it.'"

Bortolotto, who spoke quietly but had no problem being heard,
concluded his presentation by saying that when he gets back home he
was going to continue his personal crusade to "get rid of the drug
house behind me."