Name: Kevin Olson
Age: 59
Residence: Arizona
Level of Injury: C1-C2 Quadriplegic
Occupation: Mentor
Date of Interview: January 24, 2025

1) Would you please introduce yourself and describe the events that led to your injury?

I’m Kevin Olson, I’m 59 years old, soon to be good old 60, and I live in Gilbert, Arizona. Been here since 1985. My spinal cord accident happened on November 6, 2010. I’m a C1-C2 incomplete. Yah, the events that led to it. Me and my wife and my neighbors go to an annual charity party, that does support handicapped kids and people. We do a silent auction, and we were in charge of the festivities and décor. We made a bunch of stuff, like Spanish margarita glasses, margaritas, and lot of props. So, we got all that finished. So, Saturday morning me and John, Judy and Brett took off. My wife wasn’t feeling good, so she was going to stay home, trying to get over a cold. So, we took off and went to the stadium, went and set up and got everything set up. Then around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, John’s son, Casey, came and was gonna take and leave. So I said, “hey can I catch a ride home, back to the hood?” He said, “yah”. I said “cool”. He said, “gotta bring my sister and brother, and one friend.” I said, “That’s fine. I get shot gun”. He laughed and goes “alright”. So, I got in the front seat, as passenger, and we started driving home. Everybody was going along and about 4 miles from the house he had a blow out of the rear left tire and that’s all she took. All I remember telling him was, “don’t break”, the next thing I know I woke up in the hospital, with a broken neck. We rolled 5 times. One of the kids was ejected, everybody survived with bumps and bruises, and I sustained the worst, my broken neck. I was pretty much dead-on scene and I turned blue because I lost all my body function because of the break. Luckily, I had two student nurses stop by, and two marines stopped by, among other people. The marines lifted me out, and in the meantime, people were making phone calls, and I was brought back to life from Brandy and Tiffany. They performed CPR on me and brought me back. Ambulance then showed up stabilized my neck, got me into the ambulance, and I flatlined on the way to the hospital so I got the paddles on that. Got to the hospital and soon the whole hospital was filled with all my neighbors, my wife, and family. That was the starting of my life, my new life. Which was defiantly a surprise, that’s for sure. It’s been a little over 14 years.

2) How have you experienced God’s presence?

Oh, I’ve had Him (God) speak to me personally. I’ve had a couple times in the hospital, where I was on my death bed. I’ve skirted death about 12 times now. How I’ve managed to stay alive from pneumonia, my pressure sores, and I’ve got a breathing problem now, buildup of carbon monoxide. I almost died from that. I’m on a breathing machine every night, which is similar to CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machine). But I’d say that one of the times, I was just down and out. God kind of came down to me and said, “you know, you can do this Kev, you can make it all work.” Then through that, and helping other people helps me fight. It really helps out. I find that talking to people really helps me. If I don’t talk to people, I tend to withdraw into my hole.

3) What brings you hope and encouragement?

- Oh, wow, family, God, my upbringings. I use one cliché I use, mind over matter, can really just focus and accomplish pretty much anything if you put your mind to it. I’ve always been positive, I’ve aways had a high sense of energy. They always gave me a bad time at work if I always gave a lot of tours to employees and perspective new clients, and I talk with my arms. They always said, “if you ever got paralyzed you wouldn’t be able to talk.” Now I’m paralyzed and I still talk up a storm.

4) What advice would you give to a recent or long-term SCI survivor?

Don’t give up. Your life I know has changed dramatically. Like you’ll feel like giving up, but there’s a whole world that’s coming. Year by year has more and more capability to listen to your voice response, and voice activated. They’re coming out with new wheelchair technology, everything, so, it’s just a matter of time. Biggest thing is just to engage. Don’t crawl into a hole. I’d say the best thing I could say as advice is to call people. Get your phone communication up and running. The apple Iphone is by far the best that I’ve found. Get that. Get on loud loudspeaker. Turn your speaker phone on, get your communication back up and running. Talk to people daily and you’ll be so much better off in the long run.

5) What advice would you give for someone feeling depressed or hopeless?

Wake up dam it! It’s not that bad. Think of the people. I always say look around in therapy and look at the people that are worse off than you. Just say, “you’re alive, you got a brain, and yah you can’t do everything you used to do, but you know you’re alive.” You’re still a key integral part of your family’s life. Yah its cumbersome, yah its trouble, but your still part of a family, instead of being 6 foot under."

6) What do you wish everyone knew about SCI survivors?

That we don’t give up. That it can’t keep a good man or woman down. We might be quadriplegic, but our brains still kick ass!

7) What is something you wish you could tell your younger self?

Don’t worry about insurance. Do your therapy, nonstop. I gave up a little bit too soon because of my pressure sores. I got them heal, but I didn’t go back hard core to therapy because of insurance problems. We had to go out of pocket. I wish I would have stayed in my therapy because I think I could have been at least walking by now. I’d say if I could tell myself younger, 45, I would have said, “Kevin, you’re up for a hell of a climb, just don’t give up. Stay conscious, stay true.” Which I was for many years, but the last 5-6 years I fell off the mountain. I lost my hope. The will to live, I've always had that. Just the will to walk, I still have it. My body just is fighting me and resisting it.

8) How did you get connected with the Bonus Years organization?

Well, Wes reached out to Christopher Reeves organization for a mentor, and I’ve been a mentor for Christopher Reeves for the last 7-8 years. He got the luck of the draw for me. Looked at my bio I guess up there, and thought I’d be a good mentor. So, I called him up and next thing I know, we’re best friends and he introduced me to Bonus Years. Wes is phenomenal, just blows me away, his attitude and zest for life. So that’s how I met, Wes and the Bonus Years.

9) What has it been like to be apart of Bonus Years?

For my involvements been very positive. Church... Just uh helpful. I'm really excited every time we do talk, and again Wes is such a phenomenal man, he's really open hearted on some stuff.

10) How did you get connected with Christopher Reeves organization?

Christopher Reeves organization, for about 8 years. I reached out to them because I wanted to do something to help people. Like I was doing a lot of, I guess you’d call it freelance. I’d go to therapy places, hospitals, and was on a panel with quadriplegics or handicaps. We would talk to nurses and people about the dos and don’ts and real-life experiences. So, I picked that up when I was in the hospital a little bit. I always wanted to try to give back, so I engaged with Christopher Reeves. They had a couple 2–3-hour sessions you went to online, kind of similar to zoom, that would certify you as a mentor. Then you have a data base, after that on every call you do they update it, and they ask, can we try to reach out at least once a month, so I try to do every week to talk to them.

11) What would you say to someone interested in joining a community like Bonus Years?

That doors wide open. First of all, it’s a community where you’re all sharing the same situation. Where you’re able to openly talk about situations and about your problem and then learn, because we all have a little trick, that we all do. A place of learning where someone else could go, “I never thought of that. I do that going forward”. Like I’m using a certain device on my bed that I gave everyone the information on the Bonus Years, and Wes put it on the website for people to be able to use, going forward for the iPhones. So just little things that you get to learn whether its health wise, your routine, it just gives you an open door, to where you don’t have to worry about what people are gonna think because they’re in the same situation as you are. So, it’s just sharing of knowledge. Very open. For my involvement been very positive. Church, just helpful. I’m really excited every time we do talk. Again, Wes is such a phenomenal man. He’s really open hearted about his stuff.

12) What are ways to get involved or give back to the community?

Your local church groups, your hospitals, therapy, or Ability 360 here in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s an organization that’s phenomenal. I don’t know if there are other ones across the country, but they’re tremendous care in Phoenix Arizona.

13) What is family life like, and how did you work through the challenges?

I have two boys, they’re 30 and the other 27, and they both were affected by it. They were 13 and 16 when it happened to me. So, Wes, he was… the boys have been around him their whole life with him in the chair. But 13 years and 16 years with my boys, being able bodied. So, they were really affected, when I wasn’t able to do crap with them. I used to play a lot of video games, go hunting and fishing with them, then that got all immediately stopped, so it was really hard. A lot of crying. Just God as well. Some therapy, we had therapy. Our youngest boy went to therapy. I went on some depression medicine, because I felt wasn’t giddy up and go like I should be. So, I got on some medicine, and it took care of my problem, and I’m go lucky now. And friends! We had a great amount of friends. My support team is phenomenal. I was high up in management, 40 people that reported to me, I was very well liked, so I had a lot of people showing up and talking to me. So, with my attitude with it I make so many people say when they’re having a bad day, if they’re able body, they just say, “if Kevin can be why can’t we be happy.” So, it’s kind of one of those things. Like I was dealt with some bad cards, but I could have been dealt death, and I don’t want to be dead. So, make do with what you got. There’s some analogy, make lemonade out of whatever you get. So, try to do that as much as possible.

14) What are some things you've done inspite of your injury?

I did jump out of a plane when I was quadriplegic. I did quadriplegic jumps out of a plane. I have a video; I’ll send you the link to that took too, so you can see it. I had a guy I was hooked up to, who was built like a shipwrecked house. He was able to hold me and do everything necessary. Just I did it to prove to people, that the world doesn’t stop, there’s so much you can do. I go to concerts; I go to football games. Just like Wes, gets on a plane nonstop and goes to different places. He lives life to the fullest. So, I’d say live life to the fullest. Done a lot of camping and fishing. Gone fishing 2,3,4 times with a fishing poll. Concerts like I said, football stadiums, and basketball. I did a 5k run in my chair so that was cool. I don’t like the wheelchair cause problems; I just try to do as much as I can. With the wheelchair, I use what is called a Head Array. I use my head to drive the wheelchair, instead of a sip and puff like Wes uses. I use what’s called a Head Array. It’s this device that’s up by my head. So, it’s fun. Definitely fun. Well, I went to Garth Brookes. April 21st, the last one went to in 2024. So, on my birthday, April 21st, 1965, I went to that. It was an awesome concert in Los Vegas. So, we drove up to Los Vegas, was up there for 4 days, gambling, partying and just having a good time. We do that a lot. Go to Disneyland, concerts, and spend 3 or 4 days driving there and driving back. Lots of road trips. I drove my sprinter van all the time. I’d say the rock and roll that was really good was Def Leppard. Oh, I’ve seen a lot, Three Doors Down Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty, Toto, REO Speed Wagon. I saw White Snakes, Great White, White Snake. Country singers all, Derks Bentley, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill concerts. We’ve signed up to go see Chris Stapleton in August this year. We just got, my wife just told me, made my day, we got concert tickets to go there.