Ryerson Alumni Achievement Awards - John saunders

[music] When you achieve, it's not so much about what you have accomplished as an individual, it's more about what your achievements bring to other people; and one of the things that changed that for me was 9/11. It was a silent country, and then a week later you looked around the nation and every single stadium was filled. I suddenly thought, what I do for a living is important, and I get communities to band together. I always dreamed that I was going to be a hockey player in the National Hockey League right up until breaking my ankle in the final game that I played for Ryerson. I made some tapes and I fired them off to every radio station in Ontario and Quebec and got one nibble from a station in Espanola Ontario, and that's really how it started. One thing that has changed is the ability to get your face on camera. Now is the time to do this because the opportunities are growing more rapidly than any other time. The experience of going to university was one that I'll remember forever. One of the greatest skills any university student will understand is dedication, it's hard work, it's knowing that there's a goal and a deadline for things, and that's one of the things that Ryerson I think was very, very good at. People stay in touch, people are close to each other and you have people you can lean on, you know, in times when you need somebody to talk to and that all comes from being a Ram. I was amazed when I went to the Alumni Dinner just how big this university has become. When I returned to New York, all I did was walk around and brag about how my University had grown so much and how it's taking over Toronto and has all these new buildings going up and it's taken over Maple Leaf Gardens. You feel prideful in that. These honours that I've been getting at Ryerson have been, really the most outstanding thing that's ever happened to me in my career. When you have people who have been in your life for almost 40 years, a university that's meant a lot to me, come back and allow you to be honoured on their behalf, there's really nothing greater than that. [music]