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Here’s to Monday
Party it up!
Victoria set to celebrate nation’s 146th birthday Pages B7-10
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Today we premiere an expanded arts package from Monday Mag. Pages a11-14
SAANICHNEWS Friday, June 28, 2013
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Speaking out for mental health
Part of Gorge Road closed for summer
Saanich’s Kevin Breel uses his personal story to break the stigma of depression
Kyle Wells News staff
Gorge Road between Tillicum and Admirals roads will effectively close to traffic after the long weekend until September to allow for sewer line replacements. The work is part of a Capital Regional District project to upgrade a sewage pump station at Austin Avenue and Gorge. As a part of the project, sewer lines are being rerouted and upgraded. The first part of the project is installing new sewage lines along Gorge Road from Tillicum to Admirals. The new lines won’t be operational until the pump house is built, likely next spring. The work along Gorge Road will begin after the Canada Day weekend, starting with surveying before excavation work. The road will be open to local traffic and closed to all other traffic at different points until Sept. 30, depending on where work is ongoing at any particular time. Most traffic will be required to detour around the area, as traffic is already due to the Craigflower Bridge closure. CRD chose to do the work to coincide with the bridge project. “We’re just trying to tie in with the low-traffic volumes we have (on Gorge Road) because of the bridge closure,” said Dwayne Halldorson, Saanich manager of underground services. “We’re sending them out to the highway and rather than through the neighbourhood, which is causing some neighbourhood concerns.” B.C. Transit route No. 11 UVic/Tillicum Mall will be detoured from July 1 to Sept. 30. Transit will run a shuttle that loops the neighbourhood. See bctransit.com for a map of the detours and service changes. reporter@vicnews.com
Edward Hill News staff
Two years ago, Kevin Breel led Lambrick Park secondary to an Island basketball championship. He was named a tournament all-star, was the leading scorer and his family and team basked in the glow of victory. A few hours after the game, 17 at the time, Breel sat on the edge of his bed at his Cadboro Bay home and contemplated suicide with bottle of pills. Clinical depression doesn’t care about the elation of sinking three pointers and winning games. The moment was both terrifying and liberating for the Saanich teen. He stepped back from the brink. “In school I had a good life. I was popular in high school. That made it harder to talk about depression because of losing social status and value. Burying that down manifested itself that night,” Breel says. “I realized I have a choice to not be afraid, not to hide what is killing me ... I had really hit bottom. I became much more free.” Breel has transformed his battle with depression into a inspirational talk and cautionary tale for high school kids across Victoria and B.C., mixing the story his illness with his passion for standup comedy. He leads with the laughs to keep the kids’ attention – it’s the “sugar to go down with the medicine,” he says. At 19, Breel remains a peer to most of his audience, an asset when talking about the trials and stresses of high school life. “I’m giving the talk I wanted to hear in high school,” he says. “The goal I picture in my head is there’s one kid exactly like me in high school, and eventually I’ll come to that school and hopefully I’ll change or save his or her life.” After graduating from Lambrick Park, Breel didn’t imagine he’d be stepping back into classrooms so quickly. He wanted to start honing his skills as a standup comedian, but he couldn’t get into comedy clubs as an 18 year old.
Gray Rothnie
Edward Hill/News staff
Standing six-foot-seven, Saanich’s 19-year-old Kevin Breel has no trouble reaching the rim. The former Lambrick Park basketball star is making a name for himself as a speaker and a comedian by talking to teens about mental health. “I was too young to go the bars to do comedy. I started coming to schools to talk about depression in a way that wasn’t boring.” Using humour and hardboiled honesty, he told his story to small groups of troubled kids at alternative schools in Victoria and Vancouver about the stigma of
depression, which gave way to invitations to speak to entire schools. In May, Breel gave an engaging and brutally frank talk as an invited speaker at a TEDx conference for youth in West Vancouver. Please see: Teen, Page A4 NEW LISTING
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