Motivator helps his audiences find answers

~ Maynard spoke privately before Semoball Awards banquet

Kyle Maynard, a two-time ESPY award-winning athlete and the first quadruple amputee to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, spoke at the inaugural Semoball Awards on Saturday at the Show Me Center.

Maynard replaced scheduled keynote speaker and Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Smith attended the funeral of fellow Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn on Saturday and was unable to speak at the event.

Before Maynard took the stage Saturday night he spoke with the media about the opportunity to speak to and honor high school athletes and the purpose of sharing his story with others.

Q: What was your reaction to being asked to speak at the Semoball Awards on such short notice?

A: It was really cool. You know, I think it was mixed emotions in the sense that like I was a big Tony Gwynn fan, and seeing him pass was really hard. And also then realizing the reason why Ozzie needed to be there for that, it was a really big honor to be able to be here. And then also realizing what this is all about. You know, getting to honor these students and getting to really do something special like that's cool. Because I think a lot of times like, just even when you're in high school you don't necessarily feel like appreciation or whatever for what you're taking on, but it's cool to see that the kids get something like this to be able to experience. I think it's going to be pretty cool, and hopefully it can give them something that's going to stay with them for awhile.

Q: What do you hope people take away from your speech?

A: To me it's like what people do. It's not so much like coming here and hearing a presentation. Like if there's no action associated with it, then it's just entertainment, you know -- it's the same as going to a movie. So I think it's really what people go and do with it. We talked about if everyone were to go and identify and change, like, that one major excuse that's keeping them from reaching their highest potential in life, like, I don't even think we could go and imagine what would happen to this entire community if everybody made that commitment to go and do that -- just change that one thing. That would be pretty cool and that doing, that action, in fact is what I think this is all about because there comes that time where it's like you can read all the books in the world or watch all the videos of inspirational things, this or that, but you have to put the book down, stop the tape, like you actually have to, like, step into your life and own it and live it.

Q: Have you ever heard from people that have listened to you speak that have taken that action in their life?

A: It's really cool. I wouldn't say it gets to happen a lot because a lot of times we'll go and speak and then we'll go on to do something else, so I don't always get to look back and see like what's kind of happened. But in the last year there have been a couple cool things that, like, stood out. One girl, I spoke to her eighth-grade class before she like graduated into ninth grade, then over summer the family moved and she switched schools so I spoke to the ninth grade when she started school that year, and like over the summer she had lost like 40 or 50 pounds or something like that -- like something incredible -- just from, like, cutting out sugar and that kind of stuff, something that's kind of a simple change, but she just realized that she could go and do that, and she did, and she was like way happier and healthier and all that, and that was like an eighth-grader.

Another lady told me like a couple weeks ago she said after the speech was done she went and signed up for a marathon. I was like, 'Wow. That's really cool.' It's not even the physical side, too, like even had a woman one time tell us that after the speech -- a lot of what I talk about is really to find your why, you know find your purpose, like, 'What can you contribute?' -- and this lady was working as a secretary for a company, a bigger company, a staffing company outside of Baltimore, and to make a long story short, she didn't have a lot of resources to go and donate herself, but yet she wanted to go and do something. So she started making calls to a bunch of different like computer manufacturers and stuff like that, got like, I think, a hundred computers donated to, like, a battered women's shelter ... and she started, like, a program to go and teach women Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office, you know, all that stuff.

Q: So in finding their purpose do you also share the message of helping others with that purpose?

A: Yeah, I think that's, like, the greatest purpose, make this planet better than you found it. The people on it, the place itself, like, if we can do that then like what else is there to do. A lot of times I think we get caught up in that cycle of wanting to take, you know, take, take, take, like, 'What's in it for me?' and the self-interest side of it as opposed to, like, when we realize that if we truly just go and, like, give of ourselves, help other people, then we'll never like want for anything in our lives.