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On the field, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are warriors. Scoring touchdowns, sacking quarterbacks, and bringing Rider Nation to their feet. But off the football field, they’re just like us – they have big dreams, they’re raising families, and maybe even nurturing a hidden talent. Hosted by Daniella Ponticelli, Air It Out will bring fans even closer to the players, coaches and staff of the Green and White with topics that go beyond the Xs and Os and to the heart of what makes the Saskatchewan Roughriders so special to its fans and its community.
Daniella Ponticelli [narrator]: In the heartland of football, community always matters.
And Saskatchewan Roughrider players are stepping up in more ways than before.
[Musical transition]
Brayden Lenius clip: It’s something we have to do. Go out there and do the fan days, be in the
schools talking to kids. Having kids camps. Like the reaction for the parents, from the kids. They
always say, ‘This is going to change the next generation because you guys are inspiring hope
and change.’
Daniella Ponticelli [narrator]: On this episode of AIR IT OUT, receiver Brayden Lenius sits down
to share his work as a player ambassador for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation.
Daniella: Here we go, Brayden.
Brayden: Sweet.
Daniella Ponticelli [narrator]: I am your host, Daniella Ponticelli.
[Music transition out]
Daniella Ponticelli [narrator]: Lenius is not having the start to the season he imagined.
When we got together for this episode he was healing from a lacerated kidney, sustained during
the preseason game in Winnipeg.
But he could not be more grateful to be back in Saskatchewan.
He was born in Regina, the proud son of Shauna Lenius and Troy Dickey, an Arizona Wildcats
receiver who played with Saskatchewan in 1995.
Lenius credits his mother with his success on and off the field.
Brayden Lenius clip: I grew up with a single parent, just her. She had me at a young age and
seeing her sacrifice everything for me to be okay and then, now looking how well she’s doing
now. It’s a full circle kind of thing for her to start where she started until now, that’s like my best
friend, my confidant, my everything. She’s the OG right, so that’s probably my biggest
inspiration.
Daniella Ponticelli [narrator]: Lenius was a second-round pick– 15th overall – in the 2019 CFL
Draft out of the University of New Mexico, though he previously played at the University of
Washington.
He broke out in the shortened 2021 CFL season – making 37 receptions for 471 yards and four
touchdowns.
The following off-season Lenius tried out for four N-F-L teams, signing with the Atlanta Falcons.
But before long he was back in Saskatchewan. On August 29th, 2022, Lenius resigned with the
Roughriders.
Wearing Green and White once again – and achieving another career goal…
Brayden Lenius clip: When I came back from Atlanta last year, when Karina and Cindy sat me
down and they were like, ‘Yeah, we’d love for you to be an ambassador.’ And from there I was
like, ‘This is what I worked for. I’m going to to take it and run with it.”
Daniella Ponticelli [narrator]: Brayden just mentioned Karina and Cindy. That’s Karina Peterson,
the community program coordinator for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club, and Cindy
Fuchs, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation.
You’ll hear from Cindy later on this episode, about what’s next for Riders in the community.
Now, here’s Brayden talking about Karina’s vital role in what they do:
Brayden clip: Karina is our fearless leader. I tell people she handles our lives in the offseason.
Daniella: She does. She really does!
Brayden: She’s an incredible woman.She does so much for us. Like she’s awesome. She does
our day-to-day scheduling, community appearances, time and place, kind of our one-stop-shop
in the offseason when we’re out in the community. So shout to Karina for always taking care of
us.
Daniella [narrator]: Now, let’s go inside our latest podcast space at Mosaic Stadium: on the
fourth-floor, west-side, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the field on a sunny day in
Regina.
Six-foot-five Brayden Lenius is seated and ready to open up about his work, off the field.
[musical transition]
Daniella Ponticelli: When you think of community, what comes to mind?
Brayden Lenius: For myself, I'm going back to a little history about myself. I was born and raised
in Regina, Saskatchewan. I would say raised I would say raised in a sense of I would come
back for summer times as a kid. I moved out to B.C. with my mom. So that's what kind of took
me away from here. But I would come back in the summertime. And as a kid growing up from, I
would say, the age of ten until maybe in my ninth grade year, maybe 15 years old, I would come
to this province with my grandparents, and I would be here and I'll go to RIder games. I would
be able to go to the practices. And then they had community stuff and then you'd see the guys,
when you’d come back for like Christmas, You know, when they when you see guys give back
the way they do at a young age, it really does stick with you. And it does hearing it from a male.
It's different when you hear things from, you know, other different other people. But when you
see a male figure step into that, you know that position and be vulnerable, be honest, talk about,
you know, their hardships or whatever it may be that really sticks with you. And for me, getting
that call when I came back from Atlanta last year when Karina and Cindy sat me down, they're
like, Yeah, we love that for how you be an ambassador. And from there that was like, This is this
is what I work for. I haven't taken run with it. So it's been it's been a tremendous experience.
Daniella: So you as a kid experience the influence of seeing the players out there doing their
jobs on the field, off the field.
Brayden: yeah.
Daniella: Was there a specific moment that you still remember?
Brayden: I was a little bit spoiled. So backstory: my cousin, first cousin, He was Gordy’s
assistant manager for, I want to say, ten plus years, like from when I was a kid, until he he was
we were able to be, like, on the field together. He was like last year, a little bit more, mainly 2019
and 2021. But with him having that job, I was able to go to practices, I was able to hang on the
locker room. I was able to like give the guys gloves. I think the best memory for me was being
able to catch for Darian Durant. So when that was before I was even serious in football and him
seeing me run around and then he was like, “man, you know, just keep working, keep sticking
with it.” And as a kid, when you hear that right from Darian Durant , especially at that time, that
was that was the heyday for him. That meant a lot. Right? And then, like I said, it's a full circle
moment to be back with this team drafting me back here and then for them to entrust me to be
in the community and give back the way those guys did before me and for me to do it now, it's
yeah, that's, it's an amazing feeling.
Daniella: and getting to see the players on that human level, right, Like as guys.
Brayden: Exactly. A lot of people don't see. Only people see the stuff like when they come in the
stands or the TV, they don't see the behind the scenes. Right. And that's always we're always
kind of an intimidating front when we walk into places or around like, you know, just people like
outside of this. But for them to see us in that light and that in that sense, it gives us personal like
in a good light, but also this team and what we stand for in this organization. Right. So it's it all
plays off each other.
Daniella: So you get the ask to be an ambassador. Obviously, plans did not go quite as you
wanted and you ended up with an extra long off season.
Brayden: Yeah.
Daniella: you did make the most of your time, though, Brayden. I mean, we talked about it
actually at Riderville during Grey Cup Festival. That was fun.
Brayden: Yeah.
Daniella: But you’ve visited schools, you've attended so many different community events just
take us through some of the things you have been able to do.
Brayden: I think the first trip right after the season ended and Brett Lauther and I, we hopped in
the community cruiser and drove 13 hours to Sandy Bay, Saskatchewan. Right off the bat, you
know, we were like, we're in it. It's time to go. And that was a long drive. We got to really know
each other. But I describe going up to that community as I don't know if, when people are
listening, if they’ve seen the movie Wind River. It's very rural, like it's there's dogs everywhere.
There's, you know, just a lot of poverty and for us, I've never seen anything like that in my life
before. I know Brett has either. And when we pulled up there, it was like there's about a point
where there's no service until we got there for like maybe an hour a half, two hours. In that drive,
we were just like, What do you expect? Right? Because we we stayed in Creighton,
Saskatchewan. That was like the small town right on, like two hours away from Sandy Bay. But
that drive, like, we have no clue what we're going to expect. And when we got there, it was just
kind of we kind of ditched those expectations and we're just like, let's just welcome whatever
comes. And it was it was to see those kids light up the way they did when we walked in that
place, it was because they've never, no one has ever gone that far up there. Like we've gone up
to like La Ronge and other places. But this was more east up in the province. So we haven't hit
that spot before. So it was it was something that they were they were so excited for. Right. They
had so many questions. They had. They're just all over us kids because, you know, I always
wear my Jordan like Air Jordan shoes. So they saw the green ones and they were just touching
them. And they're like, “Oh, we love like we love you.” You know, just so many different aspects
of what they loved, they appreciated from it. And then they just really sat back and listened to
our message, Right? Because, we're very spoiled down here and a lot of people don't
understand what those people go through up up there. And we're in the same province. T hey
go through a lot. So it's it's you know, it's amazing for us to just get up there and see those kids
and see the change we can make. And we've already made we like from when we started till
now, we've seen over 14,000 kids, not myself, but just all six ambassadors. And that's, that's
huge. That's, that's a huge impact. And that's with a three-year program. And they're going to be
continuing on. Right. So we're going to we're our goal is to see every school in this province. So
we're going to hopefully we'll get there.
Daniella: It's a bit intangible, you know, the sort of impact that you're going to have on that child
you've met. You can only speak from your own experience as a kid, but what impact does this
have on you as an adult?
Brayden:It’s almost like just molds you and carries you into kind of like the person I want to be,
personally. I have personal goals that I have, and doing these things build. I don't know if you
say good karma or whatever it may be, but it you just carry and you learn new things, right? You
know how to interact with kids. You know how to talk to them. You know how to be more
vulnerable. Like I tell the kids when I'm out there talking to them about like the mental health in
the presentation, I'm learning stuff myself. Even asking questions, presenting it, and I'm learning
a lot myself in that way as well. So there's so many different aspects that I'm able to take from
all this community ambassadorship. And it's I don't know if I can answer that question fully. Now.
I think if you asked me, you know, in the alumni lounge ten years from now, and when I'm on
done football and I really, you know, get to take a step back and be removed from it, I think I'll be
able to answer that better. I think just because it will be able to set in and I'll be able to have
more experience. Right. But that's probably my best answer for now.
Daniella: All right. We’ll set a date. Ten years.
Brayden: Yeah.
Daniella: We got it, we got it. So what is the message right now that you were working with as
an ambassador? I understand that there's a lot of people involved in, you know, forming that
education and kind of what you're sharing in classrooms.
Brayden: To make it simplified, it's okay to not to be okay. And also we really touch on reaching
out to others and using the community as an outlet, especially in those rural places. When you
go up there like they struggle maybe individually at home in a different and you know, they have
all those struggles outside of school or wherever it may be, but to really use the connections
they have in the school, friends and stuff like that. But the presentation is almost like I call it like
the toolbox, right? So there's two different things we touch on. It's it's called the backpack and
then the mental playbook. So there are two different things. Ones like I said, more mental, and
then one's actually physical, right? So you have kind of two things and navigate whatever
they're going through, they can pull from their mental playbook of, Hey, maybe So I go for a
walk, maybe it's I put my music in whatever. Maybe the backpack is something that they can
actually feel. Right. We encourage them. Maybe it's a book, maybe a stuffed animal, maybe
whatever. Maybe it's extra food, like whatever that comforts them. It's something they can pull
from wherever they're at. If they're going through stress, anxiety, just to give them outlets of how
they can cope with whatever they're going through. Right. We don't get too deep, but if the kids
want to open up, then it's a safe place. I tell them. I start with, Hey, this is a very safe place. I'm
going to get open with Invulnerable with you guys. You guys don't have to, but if you guys have
anything, you guys, you guys ask ask away when you kind of break the ice. Especially for
myself, ‘cause I'm a big figure. I’m intimidating. I have tattoos. You know, when I walk in, they
have they're kind of sitting there. But then when I start smiling and talking and break the ice, it's
tremendous that you see the kids just really take a deep breath and be able to be, you know,
comfortable and vulnerable, which is really cool.
Daniella: There's something we don't really talk about much, and it's the toll that the pandemic
had on community outreach to be able to go up, as you said, to Sandy Bay last season, do you
feel like it is a little bit of a reintroduction in some ways because there was that time off, or is it
just kind of right into it again?
Brayden: Depends where you go. Some schools will be like they'll just be so fired up over there
and like, it'll just be ready. And some you know, they'll it'll take a little slower for the kids to open
up, you know, teachers a little bit more, you know, timid because it's been a while. Right. But the
response that like when we go to those rural areas, it's like we haven't seen you guys since, I
had one school, ‘we haven't seen you guys since 2011, 2012, 2013.’ It's like, that's even past
COVID, like before COVID, right? So it's like when you hear that like, Holy. And then we report
back like, yeah, we got to keep touching these communities and seeing these schools even,
especially after COVID. Right? But the excitement is there. When we're in Creighton,
Saskatchewan, like filling up gas at the gas station and people drove by, they heard you on the
radio. ‘You guys are coming up on the radio.’ Like they were telling the community that we were
coming out just to be in the school. Right. Just, you know, the excitement is there. And
especially after COVID, it's it's now the ball is rolling and we're able to do anything with no kind
of limitations, which which helps a lot.
Daniella: If people only take away one thing about you, Braden, when they meet you, if they
ever get to hear you speak in a classroom or at an event, what is it you hope they remember?
Brayden: That I was honest and true. You know, I like I said earlier, like I try to just be that, be
like me, be present, give them everything that I have. I have no problem being vulnerable in
front of people. I've been through a lot in my 26 years. So that's kind of built that foundation of
me being able to be vulnerable, especially in a in a place where if it's around people. But yeah,
for people to know that, like, you know that, yeah, I'm honest and true about what I say, about
what I give to the community, my feeling, my intentions and yeah, and for them to feel that love
that they give me and I'm giving it back to them. Right. And, and obviously they hope everything
I'm a good football player to but obviously but yeah I know that's that's probably my best answer.
Daniella: There's such a focus on culture within the club but when you look at the overall
organization and how you've been able to develop yourself as a human being within it, what can
you say about that and being allowed to be vulnerable?
Brayden: Yeah, I give thanks to this organization all the time, especially whenever I can,
because they've allowed me to, like you said, grow individually. And what's cool about this
organization is they allow you have a voice, right? You know, and with whatever you want to talk
about an idea, there's a problem. Whatever. Everybody's open and and you know there to talk
there to respond. But for myself, like I came in, I got drafted right after my father passed away,
right after my grandfather passed away, like back to back. So that was a tough time. And I got
hurt the first day of camp coming in my rookie year so that was, I thought, I was gone after.
Even though I was a draft pick, I was like, This is it, you know? But they they saw my potential.
They saw that they had it. And what they they had in me, they supported me through the whole
way. This whole journey, even now, this recent injury is just it's the amount of text messages and
a lot of love I got from this organization. It was, you know, it's a really good feeling to have, you
know, have those people behind your back in your corner. Right. And that makes a difference
because you come to work every day with a different type of confidence, a different type of work
ethic, a different type of love, because, you know, it's reciprocated it, right? And then when you
add in the community stuff that just kind of ties the whole picture together, right? Because this is
a community owned team, right? Rider Nation is Saskatchewan, right? So this is it's a big thing
for for it to be all tied in together as one.
Daniella: Just reflecting on why I love the team, that’s it for me.
Brayden: Exactly.
Daniella: I mean, I'm a transplant to this province. I was here in the 2012, I think was the first
time I came to a game not that long ago.
Brayden: That’s not long at all.
Daniella: and it's like I couldn't see myself cheering for a different team or being connected in
that way because of that reason. And I did want to ask about that: the tradition of the community
connection, you know, what it means to just be part of this wave of ambassadors knowing that
there's going to be even more in the future.
Brayden: Exactly. This it's it's a new day and age. And for us, us six individuals. And obviously
there's more guys doing like doing other stuff as well, like on the team, do it in the community.
It's it's something we have to do, you know, because as back in the day, I always think it it felt
like the demographic they say is changing and it's like more or less and less young people are,
you know, more interested. But for us to break that barrier and go out there and, you know, do
the fan days, be in the schools talking to kids, having kids camps, doing the, you know, the
women in sport with the with the with the football camps, with the ladies, like I've got to do all
those things. And that like the reaction from the parents, from the kids, from the other
organizers, it's it's they always say this is going to change the next generation because you
guys are like inspiring hope and change and, you know, telling and letting, you know, women or
or men, you can play the sport, you can do this. You can be a part of Rider nation, whether it's
playing, whether it's, you know, doing what you do, whether it's doing what Karina does or Blake
or whatever you can do, there's there's opportunity for everybody to be a part of this
organization, not just playing. Right. So it's it's everything, right? And like you said, like you
couldn't see yourself cheering for any other team. And like, I've, I've bled green my whole life.
My grandparents have had season tickets since the seventies, and everybody in my family still
has season tickets to this day. Right. So it's it's a tradition that has it's going to live on forever.
But we've got to keep pushing that, you know, and keep pushing it into the community. So it's
good. It's awesome.
Daniella: A little added incentive for your family, I think.
Brayden: 100%, Yeah. No, it's like I said, it's it's crazy how life works when life works in its own
mysterious ways. And for for me to be back here where it kind of all started, like I wasn't an NFL
watcher when I was a kid. I was straight Riders, you know, and like, oh, that one day I you know,
I have pictures of my grandmother's like, photo album of me on old Taylor Field, just tossing the
football. And now I guess, you know, it's like now I'm now I get to play right So it's it's really cool.
Daniella: You moved, as you said, from Regina out to the West Coast, but then you played in
L.A. when you were in high school. You played New Mexico, Washington, for college. So how
have those experiences shaped you?
Brayden: It’s everything who I am today. I call myself a chameleon because I've been in so
many different elements and I've kind of been able to kind of just submerge myself wherever I
lived in, like the most rural area of Port Hardy, British Columbia, of north of the north island of
Vancouver Island, I've lived in lots of houses, California as a young teenager. I've lived in Seattle
and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the high desert. Like so many different places in so many
different times in my life. And you carry all those hardships, you take up more of the hardships
and the good because that's how you learn about yourself, right? And all those things that I went
through of of build that that kind of just that gritty foundation that I have about myself that, you
know, wherever I'm at now in life, it's kind of I've seen this I've seen this kind of adversity before.
I can smile in the face of adversity and understand, you know, this is how I can carry myself and
also share my experiences, right when I especially tying back to the community, when I tell the
kids my story, they're like, You've been to so many places. What's it like? I've never been on to
California. Like, you know, it's cool for them to see that you've I've been to so many places and
I've experienced a lot, which I'm very fortunate, you know, have done. But yeah, all of all of
those places from going to L.A. at 16 years old.
Daniella: Wow.
Brayden: I went and lived with my aunt and uncle to chase that chase this dream right. To then
have, you know, get a scholarship to University of Washington and be able to play that high
level and finish it out in New Mexico and then get drafted back home. And, you know, and then
be able to have a chance in the NFL. The journey has been has been incredible. It's been unruly
and has been a roller coaster. But as anybody's journey and anybody what everybody works for,
you go through the ups and downs. Right. But that's that's kind of makes it all worth it at the end,
right.
Daniella: You've talked about this impact on you. I think what's interesting about this is even if
there's someone listening who is kind of like, okay, so what does this have to do with football?
Which again, there's many reasons why this has to do with football. Does this make you a better
teammate? Does this make you a better player?
Brayden: 100%, I think in more ways than I think we can understand. Like I said, I can
understand right now, but it's just building a foundation for myself as a man, as a teammate, as
a you know, as a soon to be husband, as a brother to my other my teammates on the field. You
learn like especially for me when I go to these rural communities and I come back here, it's like
it's very humbling. And every day I walk in this building, I'm appreciative of being able to be in
this building, going to work with my brothers, right? Like every day, like it's always it's always
that exciting feeling because it's like one, like you said with COVID, that year took away
everything from everybody, right? And to be without having kind of that reality of that's how
quick it can be taken away from you and you, you understand that type of love and time back to
the community work. Yeah, you build, you build just so many building blocks of yourself
individually and you find new ways how to communicate, how to be, like you said, better
teammate, how to, you know, solve problems as a, as a leader, right. Because you know, when
you're talking these kids, you're you're that leader for them, right? And then now I can bring
those kind of traits and qualities that I learned from them speaking to them. I bring it back to like
right, you know, when we do our little you'll see the receivers, I don’t know if people see the
pregame on TSN or whatever, but if you a t the game, the receivers get the middle feel We kind
of do a circle and I'm I'm the one I'm the one talking in there you know giving the boys and you
know I can’t be too detailed of what I say, It gets kind of explicit, you know, depending on who
we're playing, especially those boys on Friday. But you take all those things and it ties back
straight to the field and almost it's almost mindlessly, you know, you sound like you're thinking
about it. What's changing? But you you'll pick up on it out like, oh, okay, that's that's where that
came from. I kind of I learned it from that or whatever it may be. So it does tie back.
Daniella: I'm glad you mentioned soon to be husband. You're 26. You're engaged.
Brayden: Yes.
Daniella:Congratulations.
Brayden: Thank you very much. Yes.
Daniella: Wedding is next year?
Brayden: April 19th, 2024.
Daniella: Whoa. We just dropped the date. Over here.
Brayden: Oh, yeah. It's in cement now. Yeah, we're not. We're a year out and that we had to put
the deposits. Now we're doing it in Victoria, so it's busy out there. So we have to put, you know,
get everything in stone. The big, the big ones, you had to get those deposit down so.
Daniella: You talked a lot about personal goals at the end of all of this, this being the football
journey for you. What do you want to leave with?
Brayden: That's a great question to ask. What I want to leave with? I want to leave with peace
and happiness of knowing that I did everything in my life, everything in my power to be the best
version of myself I could be for this organization, for this community. And that's that's the biggest
thing I want. I don't want to look back with any regrets of anything. I should have done this. I
should I should have went to this appearance. I should've went to this school. Whenever I get
those text messages and everything, I'm there no matter what. Karina doesn't even to, She can
just be like, There's a time. Be there. Sounds good, I'll be there. You know, all those things
because we're given so much. Where you where I'm like, I tell people and when I go to schools,
we're so spoiled of what we're given in this place and it's spoiled in a good way, not in a bad
way. It's in a great way. And it's for my for my own self. I have to give back. I have to give
everything that I've been given a half to give it back. And it's and it's something that I think the
foundation I've been raised on by my amazing mother and a great family. But that's that's just
who I am as well, right? I want to look back and just smile and be like whoever, whoever you
know, talks about me when I'm done or whatever. Maybe they just they just kind of smile like,
‘that's a great guy. He gave so much to his community.’ And that's what I kind of want to live with
for, you know, for the fans, for the for the people, because it wouldn't be powered without them.
Right. So just, you know, giving back to them. Everything they give me.
[Musical transition]
Daniella [narrator]: While Saskatchewan Roughriders players have given back to the community
throughout the team’s history.
It was only four years ago the football club officially launched its own charity:
The Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation.
Cindy Fuchs was chosen as its first executive director.
Before that, she spent 35 years with the Red Cross – the last 12 as vice-president of
Saskatchewan.
Cindy strengthened the Saskatchewan Red Cross’s capacity to respond to emergencies. In
2015, she received the University of Regina President’s Community Award for the Red Cross’s
response to the northern wildfires.
She also led major campaigns including Pink Day – and expanded its bullying prevention and
healthy relationship education.
Work that – even prior to joining the foundation – involved bringing in Rider players to speak
with kids in schools.
Now, Cindy Fuchs helms a foundation whose goals remain ambitiou, with a focus on giving back
as much – and more – each year.
Daniella: When people hear about these Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation, they might
think community outreach or donations. It is that. And it's also so much more than that.
Cindy: Yeah, it's actually a little bit of both of great worlds, really. So you raise money and you
give it out. But we're also doing such great work in the community in delivering our own
programming. So you get to do a little bit of all of that.
Daniella: So for those who don't know what is a quick history of the Saskatchewan Roughrider
Foundation?
Cindy: It was created four years ago by the football club, and they decided that they needed to
have a charitable arm which would be able to give back more to the community. Like other
sports foundations. Really a great move on behalf of the football club, because there isn't a
whole lot in Canada, well, particularly in football. But they did look at some other really good
sports foundations and use some of those models. But what it does is it elevates the ability to
give back to the community, both in programing and using our players in the community at the
same time as we're a community-owned football club. So why wouldn't you want to give more?
So being a charity also allows you to collect donations and do a lot of fundraising that you could
not do if you were just the football club.
Daniella: What is something, Cindy, that people are surprised to learn about the foundation?
Cindy: What they're surprised but really happy about is that the foundation was able to put
players back in schools after COVID and after the pandemic. They were in schools a little bit,
but under different or with different organizations. But I would say that the public, particularly
rural Saskatchewan, like when we can send a player to a school in rural Saskatchewan, they
don't get a whole lot of visitors in many cases that can actually talk to kids about mental health,
their own mental health, as well as health support for the kids that are there tools that they can
use or reading literacy. It just has such a big impact on those kids. And they actually I was just
saying this the other day that people remember the player that was in their school when they
were in elementary school. So being able to do that is quite exciting and I think it's also exciting
for our players to be able to do that. They feel pretty well. They get put on a pedestal when
they're out in those communities.
Daniella: Yeah, it's really special. I just spoke with Brayden Linnaeus. He just lights up talking
about being an ambassador. He's one of several ambassadors currently on the team. You have
them designated. You've also had alumni come through. How important is it to ensure, now, a
legacy for those ambassadors?
Cindy: Well, I think the ambassador program where we actually and, you know, not every player
is a good ambassador, not everybody wants to give back to the community in the same way that
as you spoke to Brayden and that we were very fortunate in Saskatchewan to have some
incredible players that not only want to do it for their own brand, which is really good for them,
but also they really want to make a difference in kids lives. And so those players that actually
have that are perfect as ambassadors for the foundation, and I think that for the most part, we
have six really strong ones that stay with us all year. So our busy time is not during the football
season because those players have another job to do. But our busy time in the foundation is
when they're not playing football and that's when we're really active throughout the province.
Daniella: How does the foundation assess where to go and the need across such a vast
province?
Cindy: with our school programming, because we just launched the win with wellness, which is
the wellness program, this year, it was first come, first serve. So we have a waitlist for next
year, but our plan is to reach every school in the province within the next 3 to 5 years,
depending on how long it takes. And our players will tell you, that are not necessarily from here,
that it's quite a distance to drive to some of our locations in this province. So it's not easily done.
It's not like you're in a metropolis centre where you can go and do a couple of school
presentations in a day. You have quite a drive to get there. And so I think, you know, for us to be
able to reach out throughout the whole province is also really important. We make sure that we
balance the support we have under those three pillars. Of course, with locations outside of
Regina as well as Regina. So sometimes, you know, it's viewed that the riders are a Regina
football club, whether or not they're really a provincial, we just happen to play here. But I can tell
you that the community part of the players giving back and the football club foundation
community part is throughout the entire province.
Daniella: You mentioned fundraising and that is a big part of what the foundation does. You have
told me the story about the Chase the Ace. I love that story, Cindy, and I would love for you to
share it just how you needed to be innovative in a time when all of a sudden there was little
access to the tools that you had.
Cindy: Yeah, I have shared that a number of times because I left a long-term career to come in
and join the Ri der Foundation. And, you know, four months later we're in a pandemic. And I'm
thinking, okay, so a lot of our amateur football clubs, which we've always funded, we didn't have
a season either. We couldn't play football. They counted on our support and they had, they still
had, expenses even though they couldn't play, they still had expenses. They kept them thinking
we got to give back somehow we got to get back. So how are we going to ever fundraise to give
back some of that lost revenue that they had? And I'm talking about the elite teams, but also
Football Sask that, you know, they had they have infrastructure costs and they have admin
costs and they still had support that they had to pay, they had to pay for. So Google, what can
you do in a pandemic? And ended up with this great initiative out of Toronto SickKids Hospital.
They were doing this. They called it Catch the Ace. And I thought, you know, I in a small town in
this province. We've done that in Legions and Lions Clubs. I think we can do that. So we put it
online and we ended up being able to raise just over $600,000 in the middle of a pandemic.
Now, little did we know. We didn't know that people would be happy to be having something to
do at home, didn't know how long that was going to last. So sometimes the cards were aligned
and it worked out really well. But we continue obviously, we had to continue some of our
fundraising, but when we could actually gather again, then we start to do events and like our
hockey game and the comedy nights and that sort of thing. So we amped up our fundraising,
but we survived during a really tough time to raise money. We just had to be creative.
Daniella: And let's talk about some of those events. You mentioned the hockey game. I'd love to
dive into that. That was such an amazing initiative because it took something that a player, you
know, is so passionate about and made it into this remarkable event.
Cindy: Yeah, When you have a player like Brett Lauther, that he has an idea in his head and he
wants it so bad and he proclaims to be the best hockey player in the CFL.
Daniella: I've heard that many times, yes.
Cindy: He's probably told you that, yeah. But he really, really wanted to do it for Kids’ Sport. And
that's one of our funded partners and one of our great partners, and it allows kids to play the
game of sport, whether it's football or hockey, it doesn't matter. And so we just said, You know
what, Brett, let's do it. Let's do it this winter. And he was sticking around. He's one of our player
ambassadors and he put in hours and hours of volunteer time to help us create an amazing
charitable event. We had alumni from the Rider organization as well as current players play, and
we had great sponsorship and it was in Saskatoon. So it was a it's a first time. We'll do it again
for sure. But we raised significant amount of money for kids sports so kids could play.
Daniella: To me it's the collaboration, right? Foundation, player ambassador coming together. I
know you and Brett both said, ‘Yeah it ended up being a lot more work for Brett than he thought
it was going to be’ but that's the journey, right? You have to go through the organization and he
is so excited though to know that it's going to continue. That's that's part of it, too. When people
give to the Saskatchewan Roughriders Foundation, what are they supporting?
Cindy: If they're buying a 5050 ticket, they are definitely supporting amateur football because all
of those funds go towards amateur football. If they're supporting other events. Usually in the last
little while, it's our mental health program and we call it the game changers, and we need
$1,000,000, actually, to be honest with you, Daniella, to get that program off the ground. So we
launched a campaign, $1,000,000 campaign, and we've reached that target. Now it's to sustain
it and keep fundraising coming in so that we can continue to go back to kids schools and talk to
kids about mental illness and have Brayden and Brett and do that kind of things. So we're
constantly innovating and constantly thinking about, okay what's the next thing that we can do
to raise money to give back? One of the things that's really good is if a donor or whatever they
can afford, if they can do a monthly gift, $5, $10 a month, that equals $120, $20 a year, that
actually is sustainable income and that can go a long way. For example, our campaign right now
is $100 will send two kids to their very first rider game, to kids that don't usually get the
opportunity. It's usually through Kids’ Sport or Kids Help Phone or kids that don't usually get that
opportunity. And we use our partners to choose those kids. And you can do that on our website
quite easily and you get an income tax receipt, which is also but you also get that heart feeling
that you help somebody else.
Daniella: So much already accomplished. But I know, I know there are bigger, bigger goals
ahead. Cindy, what are some of those for you?
Cindy: Well, this year, we you know, we had such great success with reaching kids with our win
with wellness presentation. We reached 16,000 last year. We know that that need is not going
away any time soon. So we're really I mean, although it's exciting to reach that many kids, it
means that the need is really there. So we want to do more of that. The other thing is that under
our truth and reconciliation calls to action, for both the football club and the foundation, you
know, there's a number of calls to action that are around removing barriers to sport. So one of
the funded partners is our Northern Sask Football League. And so we want to really give kids
the opportunity what however way we can through partnerships to be able to play this great
game of football, but also attend a football game. So if you don’t want to play, you can actually
enjoy the game. So those are really big goals for us. The third one, I would say would be in our
partnership with the Jim Patterson Children's Hospital. Our lottery will launch pretty soon. It's not
only about winning $1,000,000, it's helping both the Children's hospital and our mental wellness
program. We take players to visit kids in that hospital and the impact is unbelievable. If I ever
need a feel good moment, I just go to a player to visit the children's hospital and we hand out
Gainer dolls. And so that's the other thing, is that we'll be doing more and more with the
children's hospital in this province.
Daniella: You mentioned feel good moments. There are so many rewarding parts of this job of of
the work that you do. What has been some of those for you?
Cindy: There's been several this last year. I tend to like to get out from behind the desk. Like I
did go to Derek Moncrief was delivering a presentation in the school and just sat in the back of
the classroom just to hear the interaction of the kids with that player and how the player comes
down to their level is really incredibly positive. I also say to our players, you never know when
you might impact a child's life. You're not going to know that for sure. But just every day that
you're interacting with a child, whether it's through football, education or health, you're making
an impact on one child's life. And that's what makes me feel good, is that kids are in a better
place because of this.
[Musical transition]
Daniella [narrator]: The work is only just ramping up.
At the foundation’s recent AGM, Cindy Fuchs announced the charity was able to give back its
largest amount,yet.
Cindy Fuches clip: This past year we celebrated $1.8 million. And that’s a significant amount.
But you can’t do that unless you’re a charity. And you can’t do that without great support of a
football club behind you and players that help you do that. We’re not doing it on our own, that’s
for sure.
Daniella [narrator]: Incredible. The power of Rider Nation.
On our next episode we’re talking football friendships. I’ll catch up with two pairs of best buds on
the team right now, who have bonded through the game – and beyond.
That episode is out July 13th.
I want to thank our guests, Brayden Lenius and Cindy Fuchs.
Air it Out is hosted, written and edited by me; Daniella Ponticelli
With technical and editorial support from Blake Tiedeman and Arielle Zerr.
Our podcast graphics are designed by Angela Bailey.
Air it Out is a Saskatchewan Roughrider podcast.
[Musical Outro]