Young man touched hearts
Family pays raw tribute to Bennett after tragedy
BENNETT Zeller was a young man who inspired the best in others, and gave selflessly to making the world a better place.
The family of the Toowoomba man, 22, who drowned in a canoeing accident in Canada, yesterday paid tribute to his character and commitment to life and loving others.
“Our son and brother Bennett James Zeller was the best example of nurture, of nature,” his father Leo Zeller told The Chronicle on behalf of the family.
“He had an energy that was always there with him, but after his first step in the outside world by himself, that energy just became him.
“He went from a person who people thought was arrogant to someone who people sought out as he was selfless and (would) make you feel better for being with him.
“He touched the heart of so many people.”
Mr Zeller said his son worked in disability care and “loved every day, no matter how tough”.
“He worked with disabled orphans in South America purely because he wanted to see the world but wanted to go about it the best way he could,” Mr Zeller said.
“He was an avid snowboarder and made a career out of it.
“He was one of the few people who saw what they enjoyed in the world, and wasn’t going to do anything else.
“He taught snowboarding in Perisher, France and finally Canada, the place he will love eternally even though his body (is) in Australia.”
Stories of Bennett’s selflessness, shared through the friends littered around the globe, have been recounted with the family, but Mr Zeller said it was one particular instance that had filled the family with “so much peace”.
“During his course to become a certified snowboarding instructor, one of the friends he had was hard of hearing, and while Bennett saw the world as nothing but beautiful, we all know there are ugly parts,” Mr Zeller said.
“We were told that when he realised that this boy was being teased that when he heard the (teasing) whistles, he couldn’t be a bystander, couldn’t sit and be quiet.
He was one of the few people who saw what they enjoyed in the world, and wasn’t going to do anything else. — Leo Zeller
“This more than anything else is what I hope the people who knew Bennett would take away.
“To not sit by and let life pass them, or let others sit by and let things happen to them.”
Mr Zeller thanked Bennett’s friends, and the police, divers and search and rescue crews from Tobermory, Ontario, involved in the recovery of his body on a Canadian lake.
“Even though this is a tragedy, the comfort and professional support the Canadian people have given us will stay in our hearts forever,” he said.
The former University of Southern Queensland student had been canoeing with a friend in Georgian Bay in Ontario when it capsized last Thursday.
A friend, 25, from Windsor, with whom he was canoeing, managed to swim to shore after the raft capsized.
Mr Zeller’s death is not considered suspicious.