A message of hope for a community in crisis
- Tara Campbell | June 14, 2018
Tarrant Cross Child’s message of hope and restoration has ignited students in North Battleford to run towards a promising future.
After witnessing the toll the Colten Boushie case took on students earlier this year, Living Sky School Division Superintendent, Nancy Schultz reached out to Cross Child to request he bring his Child of the Cross Running Clinic to North Battleford, as part of a larger effort to bring as much support to the community as possible.
“We have lost four high-school students to suicide since January along with a young First Nations woman who had previously attended one of our high schools as well as two adults in the community,” said Schultz. “We are a community in crisis.”
Upon the request, Cross Child and his team immediately went into action to plan an event in May in North Battleford.
“I had heard about the suicides that were going on at the schools and knew I wanted to get into the schools,” said Cross Child. “So, it was like an answer to a prayer.”
The Child of the Cross Running Clinic team, which includes - among others - Cross Child’s wife and four children, went all out to create an unforgettable experience for the students; tapping the North Battleford Legion Track and Field Club as a partner in making it happen.
First up was Cross Child’s presentations at John Paul II Collegiate High School and North Battleford Composite High School, where he spoke about his experience with alcohol and drug addiction, as well as his attempt to commit suicide. This is what Cross Child does; he reaches students by being what he says is “real” with them. He doesn’t hold back the details of his own harrowing experience. In the three years since coming out of rehabilitation Cross Child has reached thousands of children with his message.
“The biggest thing for them is to know they can ask for help,” said Cross Child. “It goes right back to our mission statement: To bring the message of hope and restoration through an active and healthy lifestyle. If I can spark that hope in them . . . they’re more likely to ask for help.”
A major part of that “spark” comes from the race-day experience Cross Child’s team delivers to the communities they go in to. After the school presentations in North Battleford more than 80 students gathered at Centennial Park Track. Each participant received a brand-new pair of New Balance running shoes, a Child of the Cross Running Clinic t-shirt complete with the race-day-like sponsorship logos of New Balance and Brainsport, and a race bib and number. Using the town’s trail systems, a two kilometre route was mapped out for the students - ending with a lap around the track and crossing under the finish line arch.
The impact the experience had on students could be seen by the smiles on their faces, but it went even further than that - this wasn’t a fleeting happiness.
“Students made a connection with Tarrant and understood his message of hope . . . Tarrant’s impact will have far reaching effects for many of our students and their families,” said Schultz. “Hope is what we need to inject back into our student population and Tarrant provided that.”
In the weeks following Cross Child’s visit that “connection” and “far-reaching impact” became increasingly evident. North Battleford Comprehensive High School started a running group at lunch; and Schultz says the students look forward to sharing “their gains” with Tarrant when he returns to visit in the fall.