$20,000 Raised From Ruck and Dive Event To Support Work-Related PTSD
/After a month-long Ruck and Dive event, the fundraiser will give $20,000 towards Wounded Warriors Canada for two service dogs for anyone experiencing PTSD from work-related trauma this Saturday.
Members of the event skydived from 14,000 feet in the air. Photo Courtesy of Shawn Brennan.
The cheque presentation will occur in a ceremony at Peterborough Cenotaph in front of City Hall with first responders, armed forces and other dignitaries present for the event.
The money was raised through the “30-Day Ruck and Dive Challenge for PTSD 2021” from July 16 to Aug. 14. Participants wore a rucksack weighing 50-pounds and hiking 33 kilometres from Base Borden to the Skydive Centre. They ended the event with a skydive from 14,000 feet.
Ruck and Dive event organizer Shawn Brennan (right) and several others walked 33 kilometres from Base Borden in Angus, Ont. Photo Courtesy of Shawn Brennan.
Shawn Brennan, event organizer saw the impacts of work-induced trauma through his father who served with Peterborough Fire for 32 years. He has also seen friends with similar work conditions suffer from PTSD. He said that they are still human and need help for their hardships like anyone else.
“They are mothers, brothers, fathers and sisters,” he said. “Our mission is to beat the drum and be the mosquito in the tent. At the end of the day, and letting them know there is a voice and additional support.”
Photo Courtesy of Shawn Brennan.
Brennan says that the mental health of workers like firefighters, police officers and armed forces often go back to work as broken men and women without being able to relax and decompress.
“We get exposed to very toxic environments,” he explained. “We are far from decompressing, how many victims have been on Ontario Disability, how much you are compartmentalizing until it starts leaking real bad.”
Brennan pictured with his wife as part of the Wounded Warriors Project. Photo Courtesy of Shawn Brennan.
