By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Burlington residents gathered Sept. 27 for the sixth annual Walk to the Lighthouse, raising funds and awareness for mental health and addictions care at Joseph Brant Hospital.
The walk began at Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH) and travelled along the waterfront to the lighthouse near the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge.
All proceeds support JBH Foundation’s For All Minds campaign, a $20-million fundraising effort supporting the redevelopment of the hospital’s Mental Health and Addictions facilities.
Melanie Walker, co-chair of WTTL and intake coordinator for Community Mental Health at Joseph Brant Hospital, said that the campaign is doing “really well” and is about 75–80% funded.
“They’ve had a few very significant donations, and events like this raising awareness helps,” Walker said.
The event began at 12:30 p.m. in the Joseph Brant parking lot, with walkers and passersby alike welcome to participate in a silent auction and visit the kids’ zone and JBH Community Care Partner Information Fair.
Walker said that 100–150 items were available for bidding at the silent auction, which were all donated by local businesses.
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Halton Alcohol, Drug and Gambling Assessment, Prevention and Treatment Services (ADAPT) and the Child Development Institute (CDI), among others, had booths set up around the perimeter of the event.
Snacks and refreshments were available from Tim Hortons and local Burlington businesses JC’s Hot Bagels and Sunshine Donuts.
Attendees could also enter a 50/50 draw run by the For All Minds campaign, where half of the prize goes to the winner, and half goes toward the cause.
Walker said that the event was much bigger than last year’s walk.
“[There are] more people and more business engagement,” Walker said. “Just more people in the community coming together, and yet still maintaining that community feel. We had probably almost double the care partners, more food, and more participants, and we had more money raised going into the day than we did this time last year.”
Going into last year’s walk, WTTL had raised $87,000, compared with $88,000 ahead of this year’s event.
Walker credited the expansion of the event to the WTTL committee’s hard work.
“We’ve done 26 or 27 pop-ups, so we’ve been everywhere,” Walker said. “We’ve been at Ribfest, we’ve been at the Food Truck Festival. Anywhere that we can get a table, we’re there. We do some pop-ups at the hospital, with our merchandise.”
Walker said that she spoke at retirement homes, service clubs, schools, and IKEA and Scotiabank locations, amounting to 18 different community presentations since 2025’s walk.
“We tried to just reach out and increase awareness, and I think it worked,” she said.
Walker said that the organization is trying to strengthen its committee by “bringing people from all different walks of life.”
“We know mental health doesn’t discriminate,” she said. “We know that it affects a broad range of people. One of the comments made to me today was ‘Wow, you’ve got people from all segments of society here.’”
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns and Regional Chair Gary Carr attended the kick-off of the event and gave opening remarks before the walk.
Natalie Pierre, MPP for Burlington, also attended the event and participated in the walk. Pierre said the provincial government has committed to supporting the redevelopment of the Mental Health and Addictions facilities, including the inpatient and outpatient units.
Pierre said that the current facility is original to the hospital and dates back to the 1960s.
“The deconstruction part has happened already, and the construction part will be underway very shortly,” Pierre said.
The project will also include a new Child and Youth Mental Health Day Hospital at JBH.
Pierre spoke about the importance of the walk.
“The statistics tell us that 50% of people will experience a mental health concern or illness in their lifetime,” Pierre said. “Which means that if it’s not me, then it’s my neighbour, my coworker, my children or my spouse. I think what’s really important about this walk is just community coming together and having what can be sometimes challenging conversations. It goes a long way to reducing stigma in talking about mental health.”
Walker said that close to 500 flyers about the walk were distributed by Nelson High School students from their Community Pathways program.
“You’ll see a lot of our signs in business windows,” Walker said. “And that’s something that’s shifted. People are more open to this. When I started with the idea that we should put flyers up in people’s businesses, many places were like, ‘Oh, we can’t,’ ‘We’re not comfortable,’ or, ‘I’ll put it in the staff room.’ This year, and even last year, there’s such a difference. People said, ‘Oh, you want this hung up? Yeah, I’ll hang it up.’”
Walker said that although she’s not sure what future funds raised through the walk will support once the For All Minds campaign ends, she is sure the event will continue to be held every year.
“In terms of raising awareness, I want this walk to always happen,” Walker said. “We need to be like Terry Fox is for cancer. We need to keep this on everybody’s radar, that this is okay to talk about and this is an important issue.”
