River Valley Resilience Retreat (RVRR) had a very successful evening at their first ever “Boots, Badges and Fiddles Dinner & Dance Fundraiser” on Saturday night at the St. Louis Community Hall.
The event featured performances by the Dean Smith Band and Larry Krause along with a roast beef supper and Not So Silent Auction.
RVRR co-founder and retired Prince Albert firefighter Jeff Reeder said they appreciated all the support.
“It means everything to see the community come together and support our fundraising efforts,” Reeder said. “We’re giving back to supporting local first responders in the event that they need to access some of our resources and the community has been very welcoming to us. We’re very grateful to be here.”
Before the music and after supper co-founder Michelle McKeaveney spoke of the retreat’s importance. The event also paid tribute to the St. Louis Fire Department and all of the work of volunteer firefighters during a busy early wildfire season.
“We recognize and appreciate the work that all of our volunteers have done, especially this wildfire season and everybody has come together to protect our communities,” Reeder said.
Reeder added that everything has been going great at RVRR with people learning more and more and about the support they can receive.
“We’ve been every day is busier and busier,” he said. “We’re servicing more people. The word is getting out that we’re here as a resource and people are finding ways to access us. It has been really good.”
The retreat is a non-profit initiative based south of Prince Albert. It was created to serve those who dedicate their lives to public safety, including RCMP officers, volunteer firefighters, emergency medical responders, and even sectors overlooked such as tow truck drivers or funeral workers. The aim is to offer mental health programming, peer support and a safe space for healing, particularly in smaller communities across Saskatchewan where services are limited.
Evert Botha of RVRR agreed that the demand has been growing. He said they planned for a 10 to 15 per cent increase in use every year, and in 2025 they are above that pace.
Botha said they are working hard to catch up and be accurate with the numbers of people because it can get overwhelming.
The event also coincides with PTSD Awareness Month.
“The message is out there, it’s resonating, and we are changing the stigma,” Botha said. “We keep saying it’s OK to ask for help, especially during PTSD awareness month, but every day it’s PTSD awareness for us because our entire crew deal with it every single hour of every single day.”
Dean Smith, a veteran Prince Albert Police officer, performed with his band along with Prince Albert musical legends Brian Sklar and Freddie Pelletier. Smith was humbled to be invited to perform.
“It’s a huge honour, being a member of the Prince Albert Police Service,” he said. “I’ve got 19 years experience and going through struggles myself, I had been diagnosed with PTSD at one point, so to come out here and play for this is it’s a huge honour.”
He added that the work to make progress on his PTSD was daunting.
“It was a long battle, and but it’s something I worked on. It’s good to be back, working, playing and doing everything in my life,” he said.
Smith started later in life as a musician. He credited his grandfather and uncle, who was a guitar player, with helping him along the way.
“I started out with just the basic fiddle lessons in Prince Albert, with Donnie Parenteau, Dean Bernier, so I had a lot of really good fiddle teachers,” Smith said.
Smith said playing music definitely benefits him on the mental health part of his life.
“You go to work and sometimes you see some stressing stuff and then you come home and play music and try to forget about it and relax,” he said.
He was also honoured to be sharing the stage with Pelletier and Sklar.
“I am playing with some huge legends and when it comes to music for myself it’s sometimes hard to walk on the stage with guys like that because they’ve been all over and played everywhere,” he said.
Daniel Sundahl a retired paramedic firefighter from Alberta is a counselling therapist who creates artwork under the name DanSun Photo Art. He was at the event and had some books of art in the silent auction.
He met McKeaveney through a mutual friend Chris Siddons, a mental health advocate for first responder who died in 2019.
“Since that happened, we became good friends and Michelle has come and spoken to one of our mental health conferences that we do,” Sundahl said. “I support Michelle’s organisation through artwork.
Sundahl does lectures and presentations on mental health and post-traumatic growth. He presented two lectures this weekend—one on Friday and one on Saturday morning.
“I’m like, a mental health advocate, but I’m also here as a retired paramedic firefighter and as a counsellor therapist that specialised in trauma support and recovery,” Sundahl said.
Sundahl explained that his own art is born from post-traumatic growth
“The artwork I started 10 years ago as part of my own therapy and never intended to share with anybody. But when I did it was very well received,” Sundahl said.
He exhibits his work all over the world including Australia, Guatemala, the United States and Finland as just a few examples.
“It’s very popular in the first responder community, which is great,” he said. “I have very large social media following…. I post stuff every day on mental health support. I’m really lucky that way.”
He said that his presentations also resonate. Just before the conversation he received an invite from Maine to speak on post traumatic growth.
“I think a lot of people get really connected to it through the artwork, but I’ve learned that it’s less about the artwork itself and more about their own experience and how they connect to the artwork based on what their experience is,” he said.
He added that by connecting to his artwork people are able to find their own solutions.
“They see it and then they realize that they’re maybe not alone (with) how they’re feeling or other people are feeling this way. It brings a sense of community and awareness, which is
really important when we’re talking about recovery from trauma. (The goal) is to mitigate the stigma and the shame that’s often associated with it through a community, which is why Michelle’s organization is so great. This event tonight is really good, its bringing people together in a common atmosphere of support, which is really nice.”
Final fundraising numbers were not available by press time.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
