By Dave Leaderhouse
The annual WE Day event is being held in Ottawa this year and two very specials guests with close ties to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League are featured speakers.
Bernie and Toby Boulet, the parents of Logan Boulet, who was one of 16 people who lost their life in the tragic bus crash last spring, will take the stage at the annual “Olympics for change makers.” Their speech will be about Logan and the impact he has had on the world since his passing.
“We get to keep the story going,” explained Logan’s mother Bernie in an interview on TSN Ottawa 1200 Radio on Tuesday. “We could decide to stay home, but I think it is important to share his story; maybe his story will have an impact on other people.”
For those who are unfamiliar with Logan’s story, it has already had an impact.
“When his fitness trainer passed away last summer (in 2017) we were sitting on the deck and he turned to me and said he wanted to be a donor,” reflected Logan’s father Toby on the same radio talk show on Tuesday. “Then on the week of his 21st birthday (March 2), he was walking with a friend and was asked, ‘What are you going to do on your birthday?’ Logan said he was going to sign his donor card.”
Just over a month later the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos to a playoff game in Nipawin was involved in the tragic crash with Logan’s parents in a vehicle 10 minutes behind the bus. Bernie recalled that when they found out that Logan had been transferred to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon they raced there to be with him and once at the hospital they were immediately put in a small room and given an update on his injuries.
“They told us he had a brain injury and spinal cord injury,” said Bernie. “We asked them what can we donate and there were surgeons, neurosurgeons, nurses and a social worker and they all just went, ‘wow.’”
That started what has become the Logan Boulet Effect as his donation has helped save as many as six other lives. It also raised awareness on the importance of signing a donor card.
“People have registered (to be donors) in record numbers,” notes Toby. “They say it was the biggest spike ever for donation cards being signed.”
“We get messages all the time saying Logan made their son a better man,” adds Toby. “It makes me proud that that is happening.”
The Boulets hope that they can continue spreading the word of how important it is to be a donor. They want everyone to know how important it is to have that kitchen-table talk with their children.
Toby says that Logan wanted to be known for more than just a hockey player. His legacy has more than accomplished that.
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Click on the link below to listen to the interview on TSN Ottawa 1200 Radio.
https://www.tsn.ca/radio/ottawa-1200/boulet-family-logan-has-saved-six-lives-1.1209042
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