Kincardine native Garrett McFadden started a movement for mental health advocacy in 2016 that has now hit a decade of making an impact.
McFadden's Movement was launched when Garrett was captain of the Guelph Storm of the OHL, and what started as an advocacy initiative through speaking engagements for young people and athletes quickly grew into so much more.
McFadden's Movement celebrated Thursday night at a gala in Guelph for a decade of money being raised for mental health programming, with nearly $200,000 raised so far. McFadden says reflecting on a decade of work is incredibly fulfilling.
"Thinking back to those early years, the amount of people that were reaching out, trying to help us with whatever we needed. It's been a really cool experience with it all and on top of that, we've made a pretty big difference for mental health in our community and getting people that need it the most the help they need. I'm very fulfilled tonight thinking about that," Garrett said proudly.
Over the last decade, McFadden's Movement has donated money to help support organizations like WesForYouth Online, CMHA Waterloo-Wellington and mental health supports in communities like Mount Forest, Guelph, Arthur and many more. The organization has held road hockey tournaments, golf tournaments and raffle fundraisers to raise money for a great cause.
Garrett says the support he continues to see from not only the community, but former team mates and even current NHLers, has been very rewarding.
"I think everyone is just thankful to be together, to take a bit of time to reflect on where we've come from, where we've gotten to, and those guys especially, they're obviously great marketing tools for us, and they're always eager to help us out. It's also really cool to get the newer generation involved. A lot of guys that show up every year, I didn't even play with, but they're invested and want to support us and I feel very fortunate for that," Garrett added.
Garrett was inspired to launch the movement after losing a close family friend, Wes Cameron (the namesake of WesForYouth Online) to suicide when Garrett was only just starting high school. He found strength and motivation to share and be open about his own struggles in Wes's memory, and approached Stephanie Coratti, then of the Guelph Storm front office, to get something based around mental health advocacy off the ground.
Now a decade later from those initial idea meetings, Garrett says he hopes the message behind the movement that he and Stephanie launched continues to resonate, especially for young people.
"I think it's been great to one, open up the conversations for older people, and so much has been done in terms of making the conversation around mental health easier every year. There's a lot of work to do still but that's gotten better. But two, and most importantly, is kind of instilling it in people that are young and just learning, and going through the hardest times of their lives as they get older, and it gets harder and harder, just knowing how to deal with that and get through it, and knowing there are people there for them, I think that's our biggest message," said Garrett.
Visit McFaddensMovement.com for more information.
