Today (Sunday) is the fifth anniversary of the passing of former Prince George Spruce Kings Captain Chad Staley.
Staley took a puck to the face during a men’s league hockey game, and passed away after taking a pill for the pain, not knowing it was fentanyl.
“I don’t want Chad’s legacy to be that he made the fatal decision to take a pill,” his mother Jennifer said.
“That’s part of his story, but his legacy is more about the 25 years prior to that, and the Chad that he was. He was a friend to everyone, he always had a smile on his face, and he loved and lived for the sport of hockey. Chad was on his way to a great life, he was a good hockey player, but he was a better person, and he was a friend to all.”
“We like to come together on this day as the foundation to bring our team together, talk about some of the progress we’ve made as a foundation over the last year, we do it on an annual basis,” said Jaymes Patty, Chair of the Board for the Chad Staley Memorial Foundation.
Staley was Patty’s billet brother in Prince George.
“He cared a lot about his family, his friends, his community in general, his community involvement was honestly staggering,” Patty said.
“That’s kind of what we look to push forward here with the foundation, is just make sure we stay as involved in the community and Chad’s initiative’s as he was.”
This year, the Chad Staley Memorial Foundation announced a partnership with the Prince George Community Foundation to launch an endowment fund and a development fund.
“You do have to be a registered charity, not-for-profit to take advantage of these funds,” Patty said.
“We will be able to pass it through for things like athletic fees, organization fees, we look to cover the cost of equipment, basically provide access to athletes across the board.”
Patty said these funds will be available to athletes across all sports.
Also announced was a partnership with Engage Sport North to launch some mental health programs to support athletes in the community.
“A recent study showed that 40 per cent of high performance athletes in Canada meet the criteria for mental health illnesses,” said Engage Sport North Director of High Performance Simon Lemarche.
“It’s very alarming and and something we want to address.”
Lemarche said the aim is to create a support network, workshops on mental health and resilience, injury recovery support, and access to counselling and support services tailored for athletes.
This includes an initiative to bring a certified mental performance consultant to the community.
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