My experience with life in a wheel chair

Jesse Billauer hosts a quadriplegic skating event in Georgia to showcase his team's winning talent and to educate having fun and skating in a chair.

Transcript

00:00

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: We are in Kennesaw for the They Will Skate Again event. We take people with various disabilities skateboarding.

00:07

These events are their way to bring the community together. You're doing so awesome! NARRATOR: To let people know that, no matter what

00:14

happens to your life, you can still follow your dreams and make things happen. [CHEERING]

00:20

Forget about their disabilities and just have fun.

00:29

I'm Rheagan Johnston, and I'm 6 years old. I got injured when I was 17, surfing out in California.

00:37

Broke my neck, and-- yeah, C6 quadriplegic. I was born with a wheelchair, and some people

00:46

have wheelchairs. [MUSIC PLAYING] Yeah, that was awesome.

00:53

Breaking my neck was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. It just opened the door for me to do so many more things.

01:01

It took a few years to figure out, like, what I was going to do after my injury. Just came up with an idea to start a foundation.

01:07

And everyone was always saying, oh, life goes on, life goes on, and I looked down, and I saw that I rolled on.

01:14

I was like, hey, why not, life rolls on? Realize that, you know, maybe I had a different purpose in life, and here I was maybe to help other people.

01:21

And that's what Life Rolls On is about, and that's what my life has turned into after my injury. I work with a little girl with spina bifida,

01:28

and she's pretty much scared of everything but showing off in her wheelchair. It's because I like to skate, and I--

01:36

and I can do my tricks. MAN: That's pretty fun, huh? How cool is that? JESSE BILLAUER: The people out here in Georgia

01:42

are just so kind and giving, and they wanted us to come out, and we had to come.

01:52

Today's is going to be a special day. Be a lot of inspiration, a lot of hope. We've had people meet at these events and get married.

02:00

You never know. Not like you're looking for it, but you never know. We brought a few of our athletes from California and Florida.

02:08

Just cool to see young kids get inspired and have their little idols helping them out. You know? These things are really important in our lives.

02:17

It makes you develop skills that you can use every day, and also pushes everybody's views on wheelchair,

02:25

and not just see it as a medical device or something. You can actually see it was fun.

02:31

It's kind of like a BMX bike that's strapped to our butts. [AUDIENCE LAUGHING] I can't tell her how to use a wheelchair,

02:37

but a lot of these experts can show her all kinds of things that I can't show her. I mean, the best part of the day

02:44

is just watching these kids smile. Right here, we're just providing them a tool that they can continue to do this without us.

02:51

Thanks, Life Rolls On. This is awesome. It's awesome.

02:57

I love it. I'm having the best time. This is awesome. What a great event.

03:05

Oh, man, today is a blast at the park. Just riding around. Get it. Whoa!