INNISFAIL – Rick More vividly remembers a moment near the end of his daughter Lindsey’s funeral when up to 1,000 mourners in a church were shown a video of the young woman about to achieve a remarkable accomplishment.
“Our son-in-law took a video of her coming in for a landing after solo, and it had her coming in and the whole church cheered,” said More, whose daughter had dreams of becoming a licensed pilot. “She did it.”
And while her landing was right on target, a huge step towards her pilot’s licence, a soaring future in the sky would not come for Lindsey.
The effervescent 22-year-old, a beloved and loyal source of joy for countless people - young and old - tragically took her own life on Sept. 20, 2015. Her funeral was held five days later on Friday, Sept. 25.
Eight and a half years later during a picture-perfect spring evening on May 3 at the campus of Red Deer Polytechnic, her father and mother Cindy were taking in another remarkable accomplishment.
They were outside the $29-million Sheldon Kennedy Centre of Excellence; a magnificent three-storey building with 69,000 square feet of healing space that had its grand opening on May 16 at the campus’ Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.
As the light from the falling evening sun was bringing out the centre’s stunning beauty and accentuating the soft blue, green and yellow colours of its exterior panels, More offered a comforting detail.
“Psychologists and staff will tell you these are calming colours, and you'll see that throughout the building too,” said More of the facility that has over 40 mental health therapy rooms. “It presents itself as a place that welcomes you.”
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More’s painful but ultimately triumphant journey to find meaning and hope from the tragedy of Lindsey’s suicide, one of many with young adults around that time, began almost immediately.
He is a retired chief executive officer of the Red Deer & District Chamber of Commerce who has always been well connected to the business community of the city and region.
In fact, it was at Lindsey’s funeral when a group of business people decided that something had to be done to end the cycle of tragedies with the young and their families.
“I had a chat with a few people who said something needed to be done because it was more or less an epidemic for younger kids in the city of Red Deer,” said local businessman Terry Loewen, More’s longtime friend and board chair of the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre (CACAC) since its inception in 2017.
He recalled that while Lindsey’s funeral was on a Friday (Sept. 25, 2015) he had just played hockey with Sheldon Kennedy on the previous Tuesday.
Kennedy is a former NHL hockey player and a victim of sexual abuse from former junior hockey coach Graham James.
He has since been recognized for his work supporting victims of child abuse and promoting education and awareness.
Kennedy is also a co-founder of Respect Group, a company aimed at preventing bullying, harassment, abuse and discrimination.
In 2013 the Calgary Child Advocacy Centre (CCAC) was renamed the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre.
The Calgary centre was renamed again in 2018 as the Luna Child and Youth Advocacy Centre.
“I don’t know if any of you know but I took my name off the building, and it’s going back on. I stand by what I think is right,” said Kennedy in his presentation at the new centre’s grand opening on May 16. “I'm just incredibly proud to have my name on this building and I'm incredibly proud of Red Deer and the community and the region that it serves because what you have here is something very special.”
Kennedy then offered special praise to Loewen, and Mark Jones, the CACAC’s chief executive officer.
“We needed you to get this thing over the hump. We needed your team,” he said. “We needed everybody that had a piece in this and that’s why we are going to be able to have a chance to help kids and families.”
Moving forward
Loewen said the concept for the Sheldon Kennedy Centre of Excellence came as a direct result of visits by members of Red Deer’s founding coalition to the CCAC in Kennedy’s name shortly after Lindsey’s passing.
“This centre is built because of Lindsey and Sheldon but Lindsey was the last straw of these string of kids who kept killing themselves,” said Loewen. “It was like, ‘OK, enough is enough.
“Rick and Cindy went through a lot,” he added. “Some people just go off on their own and live in their own little misery, and both Rick and Cindy decided not to go that route, which is very admirable and inspiring.
“When we are at a board meeting Rick brings reality to what we are doing and keeps us focused on why we’re here.”
When the CACAC first began its operations in 2017 it was in humble and somewhat spartan quarters on the second floor of the aging Bunn Building in downtown Red Deer.
But hard work by the board and the business community, coupled with growing connections with key government officials and a goal of having strategic partners under one roof, a dream facility to help the innocent became a reality.
“We knew that if we were going to make a dent we had to have a strong foundation that was sustainable,” said Loewen, whose CACAC now occupies the entire third floor of the new centre. “What programs can we achieve out of this building to help young adolescents that are having mental problems? How do we get teachers to identify the signs of distress with them, of children?
“They spend the most time with them, sometimes in more cases than their parents.”
Lindsey’s hub
On Sept. 15, 2023 there was a special dedication on behalf of Sheldon Kennedy and Lindsey More at the still incomplete Red Deer centre with Premier Danielle Smith and other dignitaries attending.
The entire new facility, relying on an integrated collaborative approach to healing, was then officially named the Sheldon Kennedy Centre of Excellence.
On the second floor is the Lindsey More Youth Mental Health & Addiction Hub, which is operated by Alberta Health Services (AHS).
“When we first started I remember we had a business plan at the advocacy centre and what it would be and I said, ‘one day it'd be neat to have a mental health piece,” said More, a current board member. “And how quickly that came together with the negotiations with AHS. That was brilliant.”
Inside Lindsey’s hub are outpatient services and a clinic for youth and families. There are child psychiatry and eating disorder programs managed by nurses, therapists, psychiatrists and addiction counsellors.
“There’s so much under one roof here. That's where we save the money on health care,” said More. “It doesn’t isolate people. This will be the culture in here and it will change the ways things that were run in the past.
“If that was Lindsey setting that up, so be it,” he said.
More added Lindsey would never have wanted the new facility and the hope it brings to be just about her.
“We hope all these kids aren't forgotten and that what their sacrifice is going to help those in the future,” said More. “Let's all talk about it. Let's keep educated on this.”
In the meantime, More will also continue with his work on the Smiles Thru Lindsey Foundation, an endowment fund he co-founded to provide mental health supports that has raised more than $700,000 since his daughter’s passing.
He will proudly continue to serve as a CACAC board member.
More and his wife Cindy will move on, always with the pain of unimaginable loss but knowing there is now tangible hope for others, notably with the new hub in Lindsey’s name.
And if his late daughter could have one more joyous landing to be with them on this magnificent spring night to witness the glorious monument of hope that came out of her passing, More believes she would again be right on target with a simple but heartfelt response.
“She’d say, ‘way to go,” said More.
