Dream Big – Fort St. John to Tokyo and Beyond
“I believe that anything is possible,” says Bo Hedges, from Dead Horse Creek Ranch, just north of his hometown of Fort St John. Bo has always believed he was capable of great achievements. This documentary film will be a story about Bo, his family, and how the community came together to support their star Paralympic Athlete.
It will show many of the ways that Bo’s commitment to his sport has been supported by his hometown, resulting in Bo becoming a nationally competitive wheelchair basketball player and in return, his commitment to Fort St John. Bo was announced as a finalist in his category in the Sport BC 56th Annual Athlete of the Year Awards.
This documentary will show this top-tier Paralympic Athlete in his role as Captain of Canada’s Paralympic Basketball team as he leads the team through the challenges and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic to the Tokyo Olympics. Bo’s story has medical significance, as well as the more obvious themes of community leadership and the enduring culture of inclusive sport; featuring Adaptive Sports of the North with Rob Stiles throughout the film.
On a personal level, the film will show how Bo’s leadership kept the team trained, focused and optimistic. It will follow their training for the postponed 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and their journey to the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships in Dubai in June 2023 and the Bronze medal in Santiago, Chile in the Pan Am games in November 2023.
Christine and her team will bring you Bo’s world of wheelchair basketball, showing the power and generosity of his community, his family and his friends in the north.
Christine has professional experience as a documentary filmmaker, creating a YouTube channel with 8 million views, and as a global health educator. She is the Director of In Good Hands Worldwide Services Foundation, a multimedia not-for-profit educational company, the President of Sutherland Productions, and a published author of three textbooks, Birthing in Good Hands, Dying in Good Hands and the most recent release, “Wheeling In Good Hands“.
In 1976 Christine and Grace Chan founded the Sutherland-Chan School of Massage Therapy and Teaching Clinic in Toronto.
Dream Big began in 2017 when Christine shot her wheelchair sports massage video with Bo Hedges in Fort St John. Christine went on to work with Ben Haab of Eagle Vision Video, Jesse McCallum of Wood Owl Studios, Sussi Dorrell of Alter Image, and began wrapping the film with DreamBox, a video production company in Dubai, at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships. The test screening production was undertaken by Checkered Owl Media with Rew Jones, in Alberta. The final edit and post production will be taken over by Jesse McCallum, one of the film’s original videographers.
A local test screening in Fort St John at the Lido Theatre created a community feedback force to take the film over the finish line by June 2024 utilizing Telus Media Funding and locally sponsored financial support.
All the sponsors and supporters are featured in the film credits with their company outside their business cheering Dream Big, Go Bo, Go Fort St John giving this film the final send-off with numerous coloured cartoons of Bo from the students of Baldonnel school, Charlie Lake School, Half River School, Margaret Ma Murray Community School, and Bo’s original elementary school at Wonowon.
Bo’s world of wheelchair basketball will show the power and generosity of the Fort St John agricultural, oil and gas, and business community.
Wheeling in Good Hands
Master the art of wheelchair massage both in and out of the chair
The book Wheeling in Good Hands that also features Bo Hedges will be adapted for audio production with a local recording company in Fort St John. Christine will be reading the stories and her audio producer will be reading the chapters.
Brush Education is a Global Certified Accessible publisher who creates born-accessible EPUBs. Their digital books are screen-reader friendly and meet the needs of folks with all variety of print disabilities.
Wheelchair massage is challenging because the broad spectrum of wheelchair users means there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. They might be young or old, they might be using a wheelchair because of a medical condition, an injury, or even a pregnancy, and their wheelchair might be a permanent or temporary solution. But no matter the unique reality of each wheelchair user, their massage needs are governed by the same condition: immobility. Therapeutic massage can alleviate the many digestive, respiratory and circulatory problems that result from prolonged sitting.
Christine Sutherland, a pioneering massage therapy educator and one of the founders of the Sutherland-Chan School of Massage Therapy, teaches wheelchair basics and a range of techniques for wheelchair massage. You’ll learn about common problems stemming from wheelchair use, basic massage strokes, steps for massaging someone sitting in a wheelchair, and massage routines for specific scenarios and issues.
Christine also includes inspirational stories of wheelchair users and how their lives have been transformed through the healing power of touch.
