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Barb Brophey participates in a virtual cycling fundraiser for Jack.org near Kimberly, Ont., in 2020, in memory of fellow gymnastics instructor Bridget Wang.Jason Desveaux/handout/Supplied
The organizer: Barb Brophey
The pitch: Raising $345,000 and climbing
The cause: To support mental health programs for young people
Bridget Wang loved sports and she spent more than a decade in gymnastics, as an athlete and a coach. Even while studying dentistry at the University of Toronto, Ms. Wang took time out to oversee a summer sports camp and help out in the gym.
What no one in the program knew was that Ms. Wang was dealing with mental health issues. She died from suicide on Dec. 5, 2017, at the age of 21.
“I saw her in the gym two weeks before she passed,” said Barb Brophey, a gymnastics instructor at the University of Toronto Gymnastics Club, a community program where Ms. Wang trained and coached. “I didn’t know Bridget was struggling. I wish I had, but I don’t know if I would have had the tools to have helped her.”
Ms. Brophey and the athletes were devastated. “It was such a loss I’d never experienced,” she recalled. “So we thought we’d get together and do something.”
The group learned about a Toronto-based charity called Jack.org, which offers a range of mental health support programs for young people. The charity holds an annual cycling event in May to raise money and Ms. Brophey began pulling together a team. “We all got out our bikes and we did something just to kind of build community and deal with the loss.”
Around 19 athletes took part in the first ride and since then the group has ranged as high as 52 cyclists. Over the last nine years, Team Bridget has raised $345,000 in total. “Bridget was beautiful inside and out from the moment she was born,” her parents Laura Tam and Tao Wang wrote on the team’s fundraising website. “Our hope is that our combined energy can help to prevent even just one future tragedy.”
Ms. Brophey said the ride has been healing for her and the athletes in the club. “After you get a little bit of the crying out of the way, it’s very joyful. It’s very powerful, and the least we do is raise the money.”