The Logan Parent Memorial Foundation is partnering up with the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) to help raise awareness about CTE and concussions in general.
Samantha Bureau is the director of international outreach with CLF. She was with Cindy Parent, the mother of Logan Parent, during the announcement of the partnership during the third annual Logan Parent Memorial Bulls and Barrels event. Bureau met Cindy during one of the CLF's family huddles in Las Vegas.
"So they donated Logan's brain for study. And when they came to the events, it seemed to really inspire them to look further into the relationship between Logan's brain injury and the diagnosis with his mental health issues that he was suffering," noted Bureau.
The CLF is a charity that is based in the United States with a chapter in Canada - and was founded in 2007 to "support athletes, veterans and all affected by concussions and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), to promote smarter and safer athletes through educations and innovation." They are partnering up with the Logan Parent Memorial Foundation, whose mission is to raise awareness about concussions. Logan Parent was a bull rider, who took his own life due to mental health issues related to CTE and concussions.
"It's just a tragedy - it's something that you wish no family to go through and I think it's something that, you know, is very difficult," Bureau stated, noting that stories like Logan's are ones the CLF hears "to often."
"That's why it was so inspiring to hear how Cindy and Greg and Sienna are really pushing to raise awareness in the community because it's something that is preventable," Bureau said, praising Logan's mother, father and sister respectively.
The Logan Parent Memorla Foundation will be coming under the umbrella of CLF Canada, says Bureau - with the CLF helping the memorial foundation "expand their programming."
"So by joining forces with us, we're able to get them access to increased educational resources, we're able to share some of our team with them, so we can help them, you know, either improve the event that they're running or add increased educational systems to the community," Bureau stated about the partnership - which also includes increased promotion of the story of Logan Parent in CLF's national programs.
Cindy stated that CLF reached out to them to help them out where they needed guidance.
"They are the experts in CTE and whatnot - so they're able to guide us - they are able to give us information - they're an amazing part of the Logan Parent Foundation," Parent said.
As for the event itself, it attracted a crowd of hundreds to the 100 Mile House Outriders Arena - where onlookers saw the bull-riding and barrel racing events on June 21 and 22. One of the bull riders, Tyler Antoine, who hails from Clinton, BC, knew Logan Parent from the high school rodeo circuit for around half a season.
"He seemed like an all-around good kid."
Antoine noted that he had not been able to attend bull-riding events for several years due to his work, but that he was glad that he was able to attend the memorial bull-riding event.
Also participating was Alex Gauvin, a bull-rider from 100 Mile House, who stated that the event was "fun" despite him only managing to hold on to his bull for a total of two seconds Friday night. Gauvin remarked it's good the Logan Parent Foundation is teaming up with CLF.
"It's a good event for a cause," Gauvin noted.
As for Bureau, she personally has stated that she had never seen a bull riding event before this past weekend, calling it "shocking" and that she felt she was holding her breath. Nevertheless, Bureau has very positive words.
"What I've been really amazed about with this community is just the kindness and the friendship and just like that community feel you get from it. So I do think that, you know, if people could practice the sport, in the safest way possible, that is a benefit to the community as a whole."
