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Local Hero: An inspirational man who reached out to his community and found a family.
Aired March 15,
2006 at 9pm
on CBC-TV

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REPORTER: Bob McKeown
PRODUCER:
Diane Ngui-Yen
LOCAL HERO

young Elwood
Elwood as a young boy.

See more photos of his life.
When he was a little boy, Elwood Battist was a longshot to survive at all, let alone to thrive.

Severely disabled, locked away in a huge facility with other kids like him, he really wasn't expected to do more, at best, than simply exist.

Into the community
And then, a twist. Elwood, and many of the other people housed in Ontario's hospitals for the disabled, were suddenly pushed out into the community. They'd have some assistance, to be sure, but by and large it was "fend for yourself".

It could have been a disaster, but what happened next has turned into a remarkable story of how the human spirit can overcome the worst limitation and exceed all expectations.

Elwood walking
Elwood was told he would never walk...
but he proved them wrong.
The long walk into town
Elwood Battist has a ritual. He practices it daily whatever the weather. It is the simple act of walking. Even though he is paralysed from the waist down, he picks up his crutches and makes the one kilometer trek from his boarding house to downtown Smiths Falls and back. It takes hours for him to make the trip but he rarely misses a day.

Elwood has cerebral palsy and is developmentally disabled. That fact and the thirty-five years he spent in an institution could have condemned him to a life of loneliness and neglect, except for one thing: Elwood's ambition to make friends with strangers--to be seen and heard and for people to look beyond his disabilities.

For ten years Elwood Battist has been dropping into businesses and stopping people along his route to have a chat. This simple act has been Elwood's salvation and has inspired the town of Smiths Falls, Ontario and made Elwood a local hero.

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