Local Man Completes Hiking the Bruce Trail End to End and is Now Raising Funds for Two Local Charities
/After hiking the Bruce Trail in its entirety, local man Jackson Parlevliet is raising money for HeadsupCAN and the Youth Emergency Shelter.
Jackson Parlevliet after completing the Bruce Trail. Photo courtesy of Jackson Parlevliet.
Parlevliet began hiking Canada's oldest and longest marked footpath that stretches 900 km from Niagara to Tobermory on Aug. 11 when he realized his mental and physical health were declining.
“I started doing the hike because I was feeling very depressed,” he said.
After hitting his head at work a few years ago and enduring a severe concussion and brain damage, he was struggling with his mental health.
“I wanted to do something healthy to get me on track. At the beginning it was really really hard, I couldn’t go very far and I was just feeling so out of shape. I stuck with it and kept going until it started to get easy, then it got hard again towards the end because I was just really tired.”
Over the course of the 58 day hike Jackson lost 30 lbs and found a love for hiking. Photo by Jackson Parlevliet.
“I just thought so much. There were certain days I just would be in the woods by myself and start crying,” he said. “But I genuinely feel like a different person now.”
Initially this hike was only meant to better Parlevliet’s health, though as he walked alone he began to think there was potential for something more.
After he completed the trail end-to-end on Nov. 8, 58 days after starting, Parlevliet created a GoFundMe.
50 per cent of all the money raised will be going to HeadsupCAN, a local charity that aims to help those suffering from post-concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) symptoms.
“I picked HeadsUP because it’s personal to me. I’ve been struggling with concussion related brain trauma since I was in high school, and also because I trust where the money is going. The founder Ryan Sutton is from Ennismore.”
The other 50 per cent will be going to the Youth Emergency Shelter.
“I wanted to do something nice at Christmas - I love Christmas. Gifts aren’t what Christmas is about to me, but I still think that kids should be able to have some gifts and have some food and feel like they’re loved at Christmas.”
According to the Bruce Trail website, the trail can be hiked one way in 30 days. Jackson completed his hike (end-to-end and back again) in 58 days. Photo by Jackson Parlevliet.
