Zach Hofer, a soft-spoken 13-year-old, has succeeded in galvanizing the province around the need for more mental health services for youth.
Through his boundless imagination and desire to help kids, he has now raised almost $109,000.
Hofer and his family made a presentation to the Rotary Club of Wasaga Beach this week about his 29-day run from Barrie to Ottawa last August and September that raised funds for the new Youth Mental Health unit at the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH).
In a brief statement, where he mostly looked down while wearing a black ball cap, Hofer said he just wants to help kids.
“I want to help kids so that they can live a normal life and do normal things,” he said in his video.
The hardest part of the whole journey for Zach was being in the public spotlight.
“He doesn’t want the hero thing to happen. He just wants to help,” said his mother Shelley.
The meeting attracted some youth from Wasaga Beach who were interested in hearing more about Zach’s journey.
Kaitlyn Snell, 11, said, “I learned that you can actually do things that matter instead of sitting at home everyday.”
She also learned from the presentation how real Zach is; that he is not a hero seeking the spotlight.
“It wasn’t scripted. It was simple and it made sense and it was easy to understand,” she said.
Her friend Ruby Farr, 11, of Wasaga Beach said her sister has attention deficit hyper activity disorder (ADHD) and her aunt has a mental health disorder, both of which are challenges for her family. She appreciated Zach and his family raising the profile of such illnesses and the need for more treatment and understanding.
“It was really good and it’s raising awareness for all the youth,” she said.
Shelley took the podium to tell their story. She said it all started when Zach was lying in bed and told his mother that he wanted to run across Canada raising money for kids. She said ‘No’ for two years because “how do you organize something like that?”
“After more than two years of asking, I finally said yes to Zach. I want the child that wants to make a difference,” Shelley told the crowd gathered at the Wasaga RecPlex.
Zach wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his idea.
“I was wondering if you could meet me in Ottawa when I finish my run,” read part of the letter.
Trudeau did meet with Hofer when he completed his run.
“He was tall,” said Zach, adding that he made an impact, although their meeting was only about 10 minutes long.
Eric Dean, the CEO of the RVH Foundation, said the Simcoe Muskoka region was one of the last areas not to have children’s mental health services until the eight-bed unit opened in December filling a gap in service.
He said while funds raised by Zach made a huge difference, the conversations that started on his journey were even more valuable.
“The biggest killer when it comes to youth mental health is silence. It is when we start talking that people start getting better. Everyone needs to know that they are not alone when they are feeling stressed,” he said.
“What Shelley and Zach did on their journey was share the fact that - while they looked really strong and were doing something amazing - they were struggling even in the midst of it.”
Zach’s inspiration comes from Terry Fox, Annaleise Carr, the youngest swimmer ever to cross Lake Ontario, and raising money for kids cancer, and his mother Shelley, who suffers with mental illness.
Shelley has struggled with depression and she shared her struggles via social media as she was the one working full-time on communications while her husband and Zach’s step-father Derek rode, walked, scootered and ran alongside Zach.
“Every one of those posts created answers that said ‘Thank you for telling my story through your words’ and that had a huge impact,” Dean said.
Zach said “The journey was hard but it was awesome,” adding “public speaking is so hard.”
After the presentation, Zach said said he’s up for more special projects.
“Yeah. Youth mental health,” he said.
Zach met many people through his journey including Walter Gretzky, but there is someone else he has a hankering to meet: Ellen Degeneres.
Anyone interested in more information about Zach’s journey can follow him at @ZachMakesTracks on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
