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31 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,F ebruary 13,2020 insidehalton.com Best Travel Agency Suite 300, South Oakville Centre • 1515 Rebecca Street, Oakville 905.827.1100 travel@mctavish.comwww.mctavishtravel.com CORPORATE • GROUP • LEISURE O nt Re g N o 14 37 98 5 471972-41972-41972- 201920192019 Whatever your style or your budget our Romance Travel experts can help you create the Insta-worthy Destination Wedding, Vow Renewal, or Honeymoon of your dreams. Drop in for a copy of our Destination Vows Magazine and Take Advantage of our Exclusive Offers, Bridal Registry Gift Certificates and more! Contact Us To Book Your Consultation Today! LOVE IS IN THE AIR impact. A first responder who visited him in the hospital told Dahlgren he found him walking around the crash scene check- ing on others. He was cold because he had given his coat to someone else. Yet Dahlgren had suffered traumatic injuries himself: a fractured skull, two broken and four compressed vertebrae and nerve damage in his neck, four bro- ken vertebrae in his back. • • • For three days, Dahlgren lay in his hospital bed trying to come to terms with what had happened. Don Cherry and Ron MacLean stopped by to visit. Calgary Flames player Johnny Gau- dreau Facetimed him after Dahlgren, whose personality was out of character those first few days, chirped the Flames' star. He remembers none of it. He does remember asking for a phys- iotherapy session on the fourth day. Hockey season was only five months away. He needed to be ready. One doctor had cautioned his parents that Kaleb may not remember them, or even his own name, due to the extent of his injuries. Dahlgren was already talk- ing to them and asking about his team- mates at that point. While in the hospital, Dahlgren re- ceived a T-shirt from the Los Angeles Kings that had the words 'Enjoy the grind' on the back. It became his inspi- ration. "Everybody has their own grind, whether working to provide for your family, going to school or working outfamily, going to school or working outf and to enjoy it is something special," he said. "I took on that mindset, that men- tality that I'm going to make today bet- ter, so that tomorrow is even better than that." Rehabilitation was his grind. Dahlgren left the hospital three weeks after the accident. He continued to work hard on his physiotherapy. He worked on his stickhandling with a ball on the driveway. He eventually got back on the ice. And he made sure to go back to the city that was still reeling from the acci- dent. "I was determined to go back to Hum- boldt," he said. "That's the place most people would run away from. The amount that community meant to me, the amount that community needed to heal, was grieving, I needed to go back." And Dahlgren was there as the coun- try mourned the 16 people killed in the accident at the Broncos first game. • • • Dahlgren was back on the ice for the beginning of the hockey season. Howev- er, due to the extent of his brain injury, there are risks that contact could cause further damage. further damage. f He hasn't played a game since the ac- cident, but he continues to practise with the York University Lions. He wears No. 16 to honour the 16 people killed in the crash. He has continued the Dahl- gren's Diabeauties program at York. Though one doctor advised against attending university, saying he would likely fail because of his brain injuries, Dahlgren has succeeded in the class- room. He is studying business com- merce and hopes to become a chiroprac- tor. Last year he was named an academic all-Canadian for having an average above 80 per cent. "If you have the drive and commit- ment and work ethic, you can pursue your dreams," he says. "You don't have to let people tell you 'you can't.' " Dahlgren holds no negative feelings towards the truck driver, who was jailed for eight years last March after pleading guilty to 29 counts of danger- ous driving causing death or bodily in- jury. "I know that he was very sorry. He admitted everything from the start. He acknowledged it was his fault. He could have run. I have nothing against the driver. For me, I don't worry about that aspect." What he focuses on are the positives that came out of the crash, like the spike in organ donors after teammate Logan Boulet's organs were used to help save six people. Like the support that came from the entire country.from the entire country.f "I can't say how thankful I am for that," Dahlgren said. "It helped me, the families. I'm extremely thankful."families. I'm extremely thankful."f He read every letter he received. Al- most two years later he is still going through the 10,000 messages he received on Facebook. He makes it clear to the audience as he begins a question-and-answer ses- sion that nothing is off-limits. Ask him anything. He wants to help. "I don't dwell on the negatives. I want to be the best person I can be," he says. "I share my story so hopefully you can take something from it and say, 'OK, I'm going to apply this to my life.' Continued from page 30 COMMUNITY insidehalton.com /newsletter Sign up for our newsletter