“I had never been able to open a school before and had wanted to for a long time,” he says. “The opportunity came available to open Eagle Butte High School in 1996.”


Pearson opened Eagle Butte as principal and then a year later went back to teaching English until he finished his educational career, retiring in 2001 at just 55.


Pearson had aspirations of writing “the great Canadian novel” — which didn’t come to fruition — and was “totally bored” after a year of full retirement.


He happened to notice an ad in the paper seeking sometime to take on a contract working with people with disabilities. “All through my high school career I was absolutely taken by persons with disabilities. You could see kids in these high schools — the schools weren’t meeting their needs. It was important to take a look at what could be done.”


Pearson set up a company called Pearson Perspectives and began taking on these contract jobs, working for PDD foundations. His first assignment was to essentially audit how the Medicine Hat community recreationally includes people with disabilities.


“I started a survey,” he says, adding that it was sent to every church, athletic club, social institution and anything else offering some sort of recreational program or usage. “The question was asked, ‘How do you include people with disabilities in your organization?’ and the answer was overwhelmingly ‘we don’t'.”


That only fuelled Pearson’s passion for inclusion and he eventually became the recreational director for several community members with developmental disabilities. Essentially, Pearson’s new gig made him a friend, allowing him to pal around with his clients, whether it was at pool halls, or writing clubs, or bowling alleys.


What he found most rewarding about the job was that while he was being paid to do it, his clients were being introduced to others in the community who were befriending them and making them feel like a normal part of Medicine Hat.


“All of a sudden here was this bond that was forming between the community and these individuals, and that was really exciting for me,” he says.


From there Pearson accepted an opportunity to take on a new role as community inclusion co-ordinator, which


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put Pearson in charge of evaluating facilities around town for their accessibility for persons with disabilities. What he found was frustrating.


After drafting up several lengthy reports on things like curb cuts and playground accessibility, Pearson found his efforts were going to waste as the answer was always the same — there is no money for improvement.


“It made me aware the real decisions are being made at city council and they were being made about budgets for these kinds of activities,” says Pearson, who would take on one more contract job involved with PDDs before turning his attention to a position he could really make waves with.


Pearson first ran for council in 2007, though he was narrowly unsuccessful in his attempt. He continued to do some work with PDDs over the next few years and in 2010 threw his hat back in the city council ring.


“I squeaked in,” Pearson says with a laugh. “But that was enough to spark a lot of interest for me.


“And some of the things I was pushing for as community inclusion co-ordinator have now finally happened. Eight years later, curb cuts are a major part of our sidewalk improvement plan.


“We have four accessible playgrounds in our city in the four quadrants, which was part of the proposal we made way back in the distant past.”


Pearson’s passion is now at City Hall, where he has been able to accomplish more as a member of city council than he ever thought would be possible. He used to be frustrated at the community’s ability to include everyone, but the frustration has come full circle.


He now calls it pride. ■ relax...elax...


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