opened up publicly about his battle in a previous article with The Laker News.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a true testament to what\u2019s around me. I come from a strong family and a community like Fall River where I grew up knowing what it means to be part of the community and how to treat others with respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a complete honour to be this year\u2019s recipient. Hopefully, I can continue to grow and continue to be a mental health advocate and raise awareness for such an important cause and a role model for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate group=”8″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boyd created the Saves for Life Campaign after hearing about the tragic story of a young girl in Fredericton who died by suicide early in 2021. This followed the loss of a close friend by suicide last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He committed to donate $1 per save made for the rest of the regular season. Boyd also created a GoFundMe page for private donations. A number of supporters, including the Rapids organization, matched his personal donation at the end of the season, leading to a donation of $6,040 for the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boyd had been told about the MHL award, but he didn\u2019t know until recently he was the winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good candidates in our league out there, and to be selected as the best one it\u2019s quite the honour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to raising money, Boyd is also taking to social media platforms regularly for live chats about mental health. They offer a chance for people to ask questions, seek advice, or just allow people to have someone to talk to about their own struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said it\u2019s pretty amazing to hear the impact he\u2019s had on people just by telling his story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ll remember,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing the amount of people who have told me the impact I\u2019ve had on them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate banner=”126″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While he has a pretty strong family back home in N.S., he credited his Rapids billet family, the Kavanaugh\u2019s\u2014Pat and Colette, and his billet sisters Jess and Joelle, and his billet brother Zack Arsenault\u2014with being huge supporters for him when he needed it in Grand Falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey do absolutely anything for me,\u201d said Boyd. \u201cI have the upmost respect for them. I\u2019ve lived with them the past three seasons, going into my fourth. They treat me like I\u2019m one of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf I\u2019ve ever needed them, they\u2019re always there. There were nights where I have had rough goes and they\u2019ve come down to my room and sat with me. It goes to show how much a billet family can impact your life. I can\u2019t thank them enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate banner=”95″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He thanked everyone for their support of his career and through this crazy year and being patient and having the time to chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to feel all this love,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boyd also took a lead role within the Rapids organization on Bell Let\u2019s Talk Day by sharing more of his own story and advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCOVID-19 has brought many spin-off challenges to this world and one that can\u2019t be ignored is the toll it has taken on an individual\u2019s mental health,\u201d says Boyd\u2019s former coach and MHL co-Coach of the Year Brad MacKenzie. \u201cNolan continues to fight his personal battle and has also stepped up to the plate to help others fight theirs. His initiative is truly saving lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate banner=”111″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[adrotate banner=”84″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[adrotate banner=”93″] [adrotate banner=”127″] FALL RIVER: A Maritime Hockey League (MHL) goalie who hails from Fall River said he was shocked when he learned he was the recipient of a prestigious league award for his mental health advocacy. Nolan Boyd, a goalie with the Grand Falls Rapids, was announced as the 2020-21 winner of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21],"tags":[2361,104,2362,471,105,106],"class_list":["post-22314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-community-spirit","tag-grand-falls-rapids","tag-maritime-hockey-league","tag-mental-health","tag-mhl","tag-nolan-boyd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}