#CFCHSFB (ONT): Peterborough charity uses sport to create “suicide-safe” community

An Ontario family is using a tragic loss to pay it forward in their community.

Team55 is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising suicide awareness and creating a “suicide-safe” community.

Dave Pogue of Peterborough, Ontario founded the charity following the death of his son, Mitchell, in August of 2013 at the tender age of 23 as a result of suicide.

In the early stages of the organization, Team55 sponsored every tackle made by the Adam Scott Collegiate & Vocational Institute junior football team and raised over $300. Mitchell attended and played football at Adam Scott from 2004-2007

The ’55’ in the name also derived from Mitchell’s days at Adam Scott. That is the number he wore all throughout his high school career with the Lions.

“[Mitchell] was very much looked up to by all his friends and firefighting brothers,” said Pogue. “But he was a very private, quiet person.”

Team55 has many events throughout the Peterborough community. Among them are high school football fundraisers, a “Breakfast with Babcock” event, featuring Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coach Mike Babcock, and puppet shows that are put on by a company called ‘Kids on the Block’ which is a educational company using puppets and professional puppeteers.

The main focus, however, is the Friday Night Lights events. These feature guest speakers such as Michael “Pinball” Clemons and Babcock, the sale of food and merchandise and, of course, football. There have been three annual events, and each has been a double-header featuring four Kawartha District Athletics (KDA) teams.

This year, in their event back on October 2, they added a bit of off-field competition to the FNL events.

In an effort to get more students coming out to the games as in previous years, they came up with a challenge. They attended the four schools participating in the games and asked the students to come up with a mental health initiative in their school. It could be done up until the night of the games or could be a year-long initiative.

On the night of the game, a panel of judges chosen by Team55 evaluated each school’s presentation of their initiative. They considered the submissions during halftime of the first game of the doubleheader and then chose a winner in between games. The initiative formed by Crestwood Secondary School in North Monaghan, Ontario, just outside Peterborough, was declared champion. The winning entry was an adaption of Jimmy Fallon’s ‘end the stigma’ video.

“It was a fun little twist to the event,” mentioned Pogue. “The idea kind of lost its competitiveness a bit because everyone loved everyone else’s ideas and wanted to adopt them in their own schools.”

Thanks to the sale of food and clothing at the Friday Night Lights games, the “Breakfast with Babcock” event, the puppet shows, and their other endeavours, Team55 has raised close to $125,000 for suicide awareness. All the money raised has been put into an account dedicated to Team55 at the local Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) branch.

“There’s a lot of planning that goes into organizing these events,” said Pogue. “There’s the [public address] equipment for public speakers, ordering the food, organizing the games, making sure the field is ready; it takes weeks and weeks of work.”

 

Pogue says everything he and his family has done with Team55 is well worth it.

“We’ve made a choice to start a crusade to stop someone else from making the same horrible decison [as Mitchell],” he stated, “Mitchell was not someone who liked the limelight or wanted to be the centre of attention, but if we save one life, it’s all worth it.”

Dave also has a message for those struggling with suicidal thoughts.

“Speak up and ask for help,” he implored. “Don’t be afraid to talk, this is not a sign of weakness,” he continued. “Mental pain is no different than physical, and no one is embarrassed to talk about that. In 10-15 years it will be common place to talk about this.”

Another phrase he uses to try to end the stigma of mental illness and get people to communicate about an issue that certainly needs discussion is a simple one: “Everyone’s got a ’55’ out there somewhere.”

A friend close to the Pogue family says that the founding of Team55 really hits home with her.

“The charity means the world to me,” said Alex Bond, a graduate of Barrie Central Collegiate, current hockey player at Bemidji State University and friend of Mitchell Pogue. “It spreads awareness about suicide and mental illness, things that I have struggled with in the past,” she continued.

“And it is erasing the stigma associated with mental health and sports. If I didn’t have sports, I wouldn’t have the great support that I have. The charity helped make my teammates and other athletes aware that an illness can be found anywhere and in anyone. The charity helped make it okay for athletes to have a mental illness and stopped us from having to suffer in silence.”

She also has a heartfelt message for her friend taken far too soon.

“I would tell Mitchell how much he meant to me, and everyone around him,” she said. “I’d tell him ‘thank you’ for everything he did for me. He was the big brother I’ve always wanted. He was my idol, my role model,” she went on. “I would tell him what his Dad told me: that there is always an answer. And most of all I would tell him how much I love him.”

Alex says that Team55 has drastically opened her mind to the effects and commonality of mental illness, but says it is something that does not have to ruin our lives.

“Team55 opened my mind to how common mental illness actually is,” said Bond. “It is everywhere, but it doesn’t have to control us,” she elaborated. “It opened my mind to how bad things could be, but also how good things could be. We are developing the resources that we didn’t have 10 or 20 years ago and it’s really starting to make a difference.”

For further information on Team55: Let’s Tackle Suicide Awareness, simply Google ‘Team55’ or go on Facebook and search ‘Team55 Tackles Suicide Awareness’.