The cold hard facts about youth mental illness were in the spotlight Saturday morning at Point Pleasant Park.
Dozens of hardy supporters of Jack.org plunged into the frigid Halifax Harbour after raising more than $10,000 for the organization’s national “Brainfreeze” polar bear dip campaign. It's the first time the event has been held in Halifax. Some participants banded into teams with names such as the Cheetahs and Future Physicians.
There were lifeguards and medical personnel on hand in case somebody got into trouble. But all seemed to be well after the dippers returned to shore.
“It was just a big rush of adrenaline, it was crazy fun!” said Nicola Downward of Bedford, who was wearing a pink birthday hat in celebration of her turning 18.
She went into the water with her friend Kenzie Coffin who, despite the -10 C windchill factor, was fairly blase about the whole thing.
“It wasn’t as cold as it looked,” Coffin said with a laugh.
The light-hearted aspect of the event was in contrast with the serious issues at the heart of the Jack.org campaign.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 15- to 25-year-old people in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, 539 Canadians in that age bracket took their own lives in 2018.
The Jack.org campaign was started in 2010 by the parents of a young Ontario man, Jack Windeler, shortly after his death. The organization provides training for youth leaders across the country.
“His friends didn’t know how to identify struggle and they wanted to change that,” Clayton Murphy, Nova Scotia's Jack.org team leader and host of the Brainfreeze event in Halifax, told participants who gathered at Black Rock Beach in Point Pleasant Park. “It’s an important conversation, it’s important skills that we have to have. That’s why we’re here today.”
In an earlier interview, he said one of his main goals as a Jack.org leader is expanding access to mental health services in rural Nova Scotia.
“Not all of our resources should lie in the metro region. We need to be having the conversation about how our services can be more accessible.
“Our overall goal is to create a positive mental health landscape for youth, we want to talk about how people aren’t getting the help that they need, they aren’t able to access the services.”
Another Jack.org volunteer, Patrick O’Connell, was the top fundraiser in the local Brainfreeze campaign with $1,384 out of the total $10,300. Nationally the campaign raised about $130,000.
"We need to be having the conversation about how our services can be more accessible."
- Clayton Murphy, team leader for youth mental health group Jack.org
In an interview before the event, he said the support from the community has been “overwhelming.”
“The money for all of the programming here goes directly to Jack.org,” said O'Connell, an information tech sales rep who has supported community health campaigns in Ontario and over the past several years since he's lived in Nova Scotia.
“They’re the only charity that actually trains and certifies young leaders, their mandate is to revolutionize mental health in every province and territory.”
Corporate sponsors included McDonald's - which donated coffee and goodies - as well as Good Robot brewery, which hosted a social gathering for participants afterward.
Before the participants hit the water, Taylor MacGillvary, a co-host of the health podcast Sickboy and a certified yoga instructor, led the group in a “strip yoga” exercise as they shucked their warm outerwear for their swimming attire.
Lauryn Sherry said the event was a fun way to support mental health services for young people.
“I’ve been through it,” the 30-year-old Clayton Park resident said. “I remember growing up how hard it was, as a teenager and even as a young adult, I work at a Tims with a lot of teenagers and I just see the struggles that some of them have . . . with anxiety, depression and all that stuff. So the more support the better."
