Fifth annual Friday Night Lights to feature sportscaster, boxer
Recently repatriated sportscaster Dan O’Toole will return to his hometown to deliver the keynote address as part of the fifth annual Friday Night Lights Football event scheduled for Sept. 22, organizers announced Wednesday.
Grey Cup winner and former Toronto Argonaut Gabe Robinson and international super-welterweight boxing champion Cody Crowley will also be guests, Team55 Let’s Tackle Suicide Awareness founder Dave Pogue announced at the Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School football field.
The fact that O’ Too le and Robinson are from Peterborough and Crowley is from Douro keeps with this year’s theme of “Celebrating our home grown sports talent,” he said, explaining how the celebrities will take part in opening ceremonies from 6 to 7 p.m.
For the first time, the fundraiser – which has a $10,000 goal – will feature 12 hours of local sports celebration, including several high school football and rugby games.
“It’s really going to be a fun day for the kids, and we are really excited about that,” said Pogue, who was joined by teacher and event co-ordinator Jeff Challice.
Proceeds from the event will be split between the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Assertive Outreach for Suicide Prevention (AOSP) program and the Youth Sports Concussion Program from a new Team55 partner, the Peterborough Family Health Team.
The program builds on a similar effort started in 2011 that draws on the knowledge of health care specialists to foster awareness about the issue, team executive director Laura Dern said. “To really continue that work, is tremendous for us.”
Pogue pointed out how there has been a decline in enrolment in minor hockey and high school sports in general, believed to be out of parents’ fears that their kids will suffer concussions. “What we really want to do, through this program, is educate people that this is not really true.”
Sixty-five people who have made very serious attempts to take their life have been assisted by the AOSP pilot program since it was launched in June 2016, CMHA development manager Kerri Davies told reporters. “I can tell you today, they are still with us.”
Lives are being saved with funding from Team55 and the Dirty Enduro – a mountain bike fundraiser for the CMHA that’s taken place for 21 years – and private donations, she said. The association hopes the health ministry will see that and provide funding to make the program permanent.
The CMHA has learned that those assisted are “still at astronomical risk,” she said, adding that the pilot program is only the first stage of a process.
Davies then announced the CMHA will start a new support group later this fall for those who have come to the association to meet others who have come through the program, thanks to funding from last November’s Landsberg and Friends fundraiser.
The initial group will be for individuals only, but further funding will enable the association to also eventually provide a support group for families, she said.
Friday Night Lights has changed the community conversation about suicide since the first fundraiser held in 2013, Davies said. “Through public education and through the introduction of new programs, we are changing lives. In fact, we can now say we are saving lives.”
It is “bittersweet,” to think of how the event started, Pogue said, recalling how he and others pulled it together a couple months after the death of his son Mitchell to help others prevent “the blindside hit” that his family experienced.
“Who knew we’d be doing this for a fifth year,” he said, calling that a testament to a community that has raised, through related events, some $450,000 for suicide prevention and mental health awareness programs in that time.
Entry to Friday Night Lights will be by donation at the gates to the football field.
Raffle tickets will also be sold for $5 for a chance to win a hockey stick autographed by now-retired NHLer Mike Fisher, a guitar signed by his wife, country singer Carrie Underwood.
Signed Crowley boxing gloves, two tickets to his title-defence match against Jamaica’s Richard Holmes at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Sept. 30, a 49-inch television from Leons and 18 tickets for a suite at a Peterborough Petes game will also be raffled.