Motivational comedian Kevin Wanzer spoke at two shows organized by Best Buddies, where he shared his inspiring experiences and stressed the importance of accepting and celebrating our differences on March 31.

Wanzer spoke on two different occasions, with one show being offered to students during the school day and one being offered to the rest of the community later that night.

Best Buddies adviser Kevin Hausmann organized for Wanzer to come so he would be able to share his positive message with the community.

“His message was about noticing people who are maybe the ones that we overlook, people with disabilities, or people who are either consciously or subconsciously outsiders,” Hausmann said.

Both shows received great admiration from students and faculty, including from science teacher Aimee Selby.

“I loved that his message was positive, I loved that he did it with humor, I love that he didn’t make people feel bad,” Selby said. “Within the span of an hour I found myself laughing out loud, I found myself literally crying, tears coming down my face.”

Wanzer has been traveling to countless schools and conferences to share his positive message for as long as he can remember.

“I started when I was in tenth grade; this is all I have done my entire life,” Wanzer said.

His career really took off with the help of the first lady at the time, Nancy Reagan.

According to Wanzer, he was invited to the White House after Reagan took notice of his idealistic message and his involvement in the PUSH program, which focused on drug prevention in teens.

“She invited me to the White House to help kick off this program and then I got to meet the president,” Wanzer said. “To this day I’m still the youngest presidential appointee in American history; I was appointed when I was 17.”

He continued to grow more successful and eventually went on to speak at some of the Best Buddies Leadership Conferences, which is where Hausmann discovered him.

“Having seen him once or twice in a huge auditorium entertaining thousands of students, it was a no brainer to think that he would be as inspiring and heartwarming to help make our community just a little bit more aware of the way we look at people who are different and how we have to consciously decide that we want to include them,” Hausmann said.

According to Wanzer, he speaks to about three different audiences every day. It took a great deal of organization for the Best Buddies officers to plan the event.

“We were talking about it for a while…and were like ‘oh that would be such a great idea, how can we put it into action?’” sophomore Molly O’Brien said.

According to chapter president junior Kate Crimmings, the event was made possible by various fundraising efforts and the helpful administrative role of Hausmann.

There are hopes to have Wanzer return in the future to allow for more students to experience one of his presentations.

“I personally believe he’ll be back,” Hausmann said. “It would be great if every student got to see him at least one point during their four years at Algonquin.”

Wanzer plans to continue spreading the importance of empathy and acceptance to anyone willing to listen.

“My hopes for the future are to continue doing this,” Wanzer said. “This is my thirty third year now of speaking to schools so it’s all I’ve ever done and I really enjoy it. My hope is to be able to reach as many people that want to hear me.”