Good afternoon, Megan. I was wondering if you had any slots where you may be in Maine this school year. I am getting ready for my leadership retreat next month and want to have this as part of the conversation. There was such a great response from staff and students that I wanted to keep this going if possible.

Steve,

You truly took the bad situation and turned it into good. To be a change, to be a difference, and to be a role model. I learned alot as you were speaking. Never take something for granted, but also learned that you are the author for how you will live your life on earth, so do somethina great!

You changed our mindset on life. One bad moment doesn’t define the rest of your life story. Make a difference.

Thank you, Fletcher, for sharing your wisdom or knowledge. We all appreciate it.

“Cara Filler holds the perfect recipe for addressing serious issues in a memorable, relevant way with today’s young people… Empathy, levity and authority and an unconditional pure interest in choices and safety of those in the audience. Our school was forever moved and changed by her message.”

Incredibly grateful and inspired after spending some time with Paralympian, Author, Coach, Teacher and Incredible Human Steve Emt.

Thank you Hillari Morgan for introducing me to ChoicesMatter.com, the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety for making the day possible and thank you Admin and staff at Poland Regional High School for your willingness to give up classroom time so close to the end of the year.

I have received so much positive feedback from students! Our Sophomore and Junior classes participated in his interactive and riveting presentation. One student shared this message:

“Hi Steve! I’m one of the kids from Poland Regional and I just wanted to thank you for your time today.

Your perspective is very inspirational especially with the things I’ve been going through I really needed that. You’re such a strong individual and I appreciate people like you who are willing to above and beyond for others, some people in this building probably really needed this today. Your story is beautiful despite the battle, thank you again. ☺️”

Keep making a difference Steve!!

Fletcher, thank you. You are like a ray of sunshine, shining through even the darkest times. I also envy how kind you are, not being mad at the lady? You’r ereally a great person. Thank you so so so much. You’re also really funny, as well as a good human being. I bet a lot of people were inspired, like me! Thank you for your wisdom!

Thank you so much for going to our school and telling us your story. I love how you’re still positive even after everything that has happened. You have such good advice for everything. Not everyone has neough courage to tell their story to people. So, I thought it was cool that you did. You seem like such a funny person. You have a crazy story. But somehow you act like nothing ever happened. I love how even after you got paralyzed that didn’t stop you from doing your dreams and what you love.

You are an amazing person.

I wanted to reach out an thank everyone for their contributions to our pre-prom safe driving event. I know it was a lot to take out of your already busy days, but I think it made a huge impact on the kids, and in the event, gave them the information to make safe choices.

I don’t think we always get to see the impact of what we do, but the fact that all our kids had a fun night, and made it home safely, is in large part because of all of you. I look forward to making this a yearly tradition, and hope you can join us next year. Thank you again for keeping our kids safe, and for making Nonnewaug a great place to be.

Hi, Sorry for the late response, end of the school year gets crazy! We all really enjoyed it. Some students had lunch with your crew before the presentation and really appreciated the extra time. Students volunteered to stay after to help clean and chat more. Because we are a smaller residential school sometimes we have the same kids for a year or two, however Steve said we could possibly schedule a different speaker if we wanted to offer another experience. The banner is hanging in our school house. The packet about teamwork and captain/leadership qualities is awesome, I plan on using that in my P.E. classes. I am reaching out to our English teachers to see if they can incorporate Steves book into their curriculum somehow. Some students have borrowed it to read already. Here are some emails I got from some students who attended!

Dear Steve,

Thank you for coming in to EHS and sharing your story.

Your story really inspired me to be more safe while driving. I hope you continue to have an amazing life

Thank you so much for bringing the Choices Matter presentation to Saint Joseph High School. Fletcher Cleaves delivered a powerful message that truly resonated with our students. The kids were utterly engaged from beginning to end, and many shared how impactful and inspiring they found his story.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to host such a meaningful and timely program, especially as our students prepare for Prom and the end of the school year. Please extend our thanks to your team and, most importantly, to Fletcher for his honesty, energy, and encouragement. His message was exactly what our school community needed to hear.

We look forward to working with you again in the future!

You are amazing! Thank you for being able to come and be a part of the conference. The feedback I got after you spoke was amazing. They could not stop talking about how beneficial it was. I hope that you are contacted by many of them to be able to speak at schools.

Incredibly grateful and inspired after spending some time with Paralympian, Author, Coach, Teacher, and Incredible Human, Steve Emt.

There has been so much positive feedback from students! Our sophomore and junior classes participated in Choices Matter’s interactive and riveting presentation series. One student shared this message:

“Hi, Steve! I am one of the kids from the school you were at today and I just wanted to thank you for your time. Your perspective is very inspirational, especially with the things I’ve been going through–I really needed that. You’re such a strong individual and I appreciate people like you who are willing to go above and beyond for others; some people in this building probably really needed this today. Your story is beautiful despite the battle; thank you again.”

I just wanted to say thank you for coming to my son’s school to speak.

He has not stopped talking about it and how cool it was to meet you. I believe you made an impact on his life and he will be safer for it!

I just want to thank you and everyone involved in this program. Our students had such a powerful experience this morning. We are so thankful to have offered this program to our students.

Dear Fletcher Cleaves,

Thank you for visiting our school. Your presentation was so hearwarming. You are so strong. I wasn’t prepared, I thought this was just gonna be some lecture but actually it was your story. Amazing. You proved everyone wrong that doubted you. I almost cried your presentation was so nice!! It was interesting and amazing. You blanaced your presentation so nicely with humor and inspirational information. You are so positive and always see the good.

Sincerely,

Thank you for taking the time to come out to our school and share your story. I took away so many things from the presentation, specifically empoweriment!

I absolutely loved it and it made me think very deeply about the choices I make.

I enjoyed the presentation because Mr. Emt seemed passionate about his work and presented beautifully. The positive message I got from the presentation was that even if life brings you down, you can always get back up and rebuild your goals. I would recommend Mr. Emt to other schools because he is relatable and a very nice guy. I relate to him because I was in a car crash once when I was going to my old school.