![]() ![]() ![]() Some photos show him at home watering tomatoes with a water gun, or hanging out with his sisters Alli and Desi. “Yes!” he said, flipping pages right away. “We want those kids to have the same opportunity and the same life,” she said.īefore he had to go back to class, Hercules was asked if he had a favourite photo in his book. That’s especially important for those families who may not have all the same advantages they do, she said. When Sambrook approached Jim and Kristina about the book last fall, Kristina said a big reason they agreed is that the book will show other parents of kids with disabilities what that first year of kindergarten can look like. Thanks to people like Rosa DesChamps, an educational assistant, Hercules gets whatever help he needs so that when he’s in class, he can focus on learning just as much as anyone else. Jim said the same thing goes for Bowmore staff and teachers. “They don’t look at him as someone with a disability, and he’s happy as can be.” He has a buddy in Grade 7, who also has cerebral palsy. At a school race last year, a pair of Grade 6 boys ran on either side of him to help him balance if he needed it. Hercules’ schoolmates offer to open doors for him, sometimes from a whole field away. #THE LITTLE BOOK OF HERCULES PDF HOW TO#“I love it because I get to go underwater,” he said, adding that he knows how to kick, and how to blow bubbles.īut the best thing, said Hercules’ father Jim, is that Bowmore has the right attitude. It has a ramp up to the front door, and an elevator Hercules can take up to music class, the gym, or the library.īowmore also has a pool and swim classes – a great fit since Hercules loves to swim. “We had no idea that all schools aren’t even accessible,” she said.Īfter many sleepless nights and frantic emails, the Stergious found out about Bowmore, which serves as the accessible school for a large part of east Toronto. Herc’s school is right in his backyard,’” Kristina said.īut when they tried to register him, she and her husband Jim found out Selwyn had impassable stairs. Clair Avenue, across from Selwyn Elementary School. In the spring of 2012, five months before Hercules was due to start kindergarten, his family moved to a house near O’Connor Avenue and St. “He’s teaching us how you take on a modern-day world, and with challenges,” she said. Sambrook said that from all she has seen of her now Grade 1 student, Hercules is indeed a heroic boy. His gym teacher, Patrick Murtaugh, took the photos. Thelma Sambrook is Hercules’ principal at Bowmore, and the one who wrote his story. “He went from Alexander the Great to Hercules the Warrior,” said his mother Kristina. ![]() So when he finally came home, Desi decided he had earned his hero name. He was born nine weeks early, and spent three months in intensive care. Just like the ancient hero, Hercules had a tough start as a baby. It was his sister Desi who started it, shortly after Hercules was born. It’s actually his middle name – his first is Alexander – but everyone calls him Hercules, or Herc for short. Hercules got his heroic name from his Greek grandfather. “Oh, I never slow down,” he said with a grin. Vice-principal Peppi Minos came in a minute after following him down the hall. “I just ran all the way here,” he said, catching his breath before stealing a sip of his dad’s double-double coffee. When he met Beach Metro News to talk about the book on Thursday, Hercules ran out of his Grade 1 class at Bowmore Public School wearing black Batman-style wings on his shoes and flaming orange grip tape on his walker. With bright photos on every page, it tells the story of his year in kindergarten and all the extra things he does to live well with cerebral palsy. He has a new book out today, called All About Me – Hercules. Six year-old Hercules Stergiou is a kid on the move. Published by the Toronto District School Board, $3 from the sale of each book will go to support SickKids Hospital. Sambrook wrote a picture book, called All About Me – Hercules, that tells the story of his year in kindergarten. Beside him are his parents Jim and Kristina, while his principal Thelma Sambrook shouts her support from behind. Six year-old Hercules Stergiou, who has cerebral palsy, walks without his walker down the hallway to his Grade 1 class at Bowmore Public School. ![]()
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