I have written a book entitled A Hero’s Journey: Beyond Little Norway and Olympia Sports Camp. The basic premise of the book, based on the work of philosopher Joseph Campbell, is that we are all heroes of our own journey. We take on challenges along our paths to wherever life takes us. Those challenges help define our path. I am now taking the lessons of “a hero’s journey” and applying them to local Burlington heroes. The term “hero” calls to mind a person who has gone through a journey to make a life for themselves and who uses their skills, experience, and talents to impact others and ultimately make the world a better place.
A person like Lyn Patterson.
If you need something done, find a busy person. This adage speaks to one of Burlington’s “unsung heroes” of community volunteerism. Currently the executive director of the Burlington Sports Hall of Fame and a member of the board of the Burlington Gymnastics Club, Lyn got her start in Burlington sports simply by being a parent.
When Lyn’s son Brandon got involved in minor sports — playing lacrosse with the Chiefs, hockey with the Eagles, and football with the Stampeders — those various organizations needed volunteer help from the parents. Then Lyn’s daughter Kenzie began gymnastics, and Lyn met one of her future role models: Mary Nichol. Her daughter started at the recreational level at the age of 3 and progressed to the pre-competitive program.
“Not-for-profit organizations need volunteers to do all the daily and weekly duties, like helping at competitions, photo day, equipment set up and take down, but they also need volunteers to assist with overseeing and offering insight to the overall governance and management of the club. Mary Nichol taught me this and showed me that the board level was a place where I could contribute,” Lyn explains.
This lesson to Lyn was 27 years ago. And Lyn continues contributing and displaying her passion as a board member.
“Mary’s passion and dedication to the Burlington Gymnastics Club [BGC] as executive director was contagious. Yes, I was committed to volunteer because my daughter was in the competitive level, but it became much more than that. It was more an attitude that the BGC has succeeded for 65 years, and I wanted to play a leading role in this continuing. Like Mary, the BGC runs through my veins, although after 27 years, I have decided to step down from the board this fall.”
People kept asking. Lyn kept saying yes.
Two other people who gave their heart and soul to a cause that has been a driving force in Burlington are Jean Longfield and John Tait. Together, in 2005, they founded The Gift of Giving Back (GOGB), which has grown to be one of the largest food drives in Canada, collecting more than 5 million pounds of much-needed food for the hungry in the community. Like all great causes, there is so much more behind the collecting of food, getting those numbers up.
GOGB is a movement of young people and community leaders combining forces through schools, sports teams, and community groups to collect food. The program truly is a win-win. The youth involved learn that it’s about more than the scoreboard; it’s about teamwork, leadership, giving back, and being part of the community. Collecting food together builds team spirit, but more so, it builds character, showing the young participants that even the smallest of gestures can make a big difference for others in need.
This program is inspiring, educating, and empowering young people to have compassion for others and to use that compassion to give back to our community. To be succinct, it’s exactly Lyn’s area of expertise.
Compassion, education, empowerment, leadership? Sounds just like something Lyn would like to get involved with.
“Jean and John reached out to me a number of years ago to assist in creating an event to bring awareness about the Gift of Giving Back to the citizens of Burlington. Together, we, the GOGB, and Burlington Firefighters Association, hosted an evening of firefighter-chef inspired dinners, with each dinner being voted on — live — by everyone in attendance.”
These highly successful evenings were stopped in their tracks by COVID, but this gave Jean, John, Lyn, and other board members another chance to think outside the box. The result was garnering further support from Joseph Brant Hospital, and hosting a “pop up” location at Burlington Centre to accept food donations over the Christmas holidays. Even the smallest of gestures will bring big results.
“It was inspiring and emotionally heartfelt how Jean and John led the board volunteers to create this great program when things looked the bleakest. I gave five years to the Gift of Giving Back, but decided this was an opportunity to focus on my family and concentrate on my roles with the Burlington Gymnastics Club and Burlington Sports Hall of Fame,” Lyn says.
Back to gymnastics to follow another step along the path: watching Lyn on the BGC board, Mary Nichol knew that she had a gem. In 2007, she reached out to Lyn to volunteer with Burlington Sports Alliance, a group dedicated to recognizing Burlington’s amateur, masters, paralympic athletes, and sports volunteers, including the prestigious A.J. Dunn Award for Burlington’s Sportsperson of the Year. The first recognition night was held in 2008. Because of the strength, diversity, and excitement in the Burlington sporting community, the event got to be so large that the Burlington Sports Hall of Fame was created to honour the best of the best. Two separate events meant two separate committees, and Lyn was asked to join the BSHOF executive.
“What an honour to be connected with such passionate and like-minded people whose only goal was to make the induction event a classy evening where the inductees got the honour they deserved. Not only that, but they were also great mentors to me,” Lyn describes. “What other organization can say their first executive committee comprised people like Bryce Leggatt, Wayne Heslop, Cecelia Carter-Smith, and Ron MacVinnie? It’s hard to believe that I’ve been inspired by these impassioned sports volunteers for the past 18 years. I took over as chair of the executive in 2015 and continue to be impressed by the current first-class BSHOF volunteer executive board and selection committee.”
Then the altruism that is Lyn Patterson comes out as to why she does this.
“At each BSHOF Induction Reception, I am overwhelmed by Burlington’s incredible sport history and proud to recognize everyone selected to be inducted. A lot of energy goes into the event, and we want these inductees to have a great night. A night they deserve.”
The always-understated Lyn Patterson is the engine that drives the BSHOF, and her level of passion is contagious. It’s hard not to put in all you can when you see someone putting their heart and soul into it. What’s great about that statement is that Lyn has taken the lessons learned from people like Mary Nichol and taken them to the next level.
Lyn Patterson is proof that people who care and give their best for others spread that passion; others witnessing this are then inspired to do likewise. This is how small gestures can bring big results. Lyn Patterson, the sport parent who found a way to get involved, continues to give of herself and her skills to make Burlington a better place. The definition of a hero.
