{"id":29130,"date":"2021-04-15T23:52:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T03:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29130"},"modified":"2021-04-15T23:52:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T03:52:18","slug":"jessestrong-foundation-helps-kids-afford-swim-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/jessestrong-foundation-helps-kids-afford-swim-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"JesseStrong foundation helps kids afford swim lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a swim instructor and camp counsellor, Jesse Benudiz was known for his energy and love of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known to friends and family for his \u201cinfectious smile\u201d and \u201ccontagious energy\u201d he spread sunshine wherever he went, including the hospital where he bravely waged a battle against brain cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, just two months after his passing at the age of 22, his family \u2013 including brothers Jamie and Justin \u2013 have come together to further his legacy, founding the JesseStrong Foundation to help young kids afford swimming lessons and summer camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Foundation, which is currently raising funds through the sale of hoodies, baseball caps, masks, and stickers, is not the first time Jesse and his family have turned such a tragic negative into a positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his first cancer treatment last year, his brothers raised more than $20,000 for Toronto\u2019s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and now they\u2019re supporting the grassroots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce we found out about Jesse\u2019s cancer diagnosis and we were notified he was going to be starting chemotherapy right away, we wanted to make sure that going through chemo by himself and us not being able to be by his side [due to COVID restrictions] we wanted to give him some positivity,\u201d says Jamie. \u201cWe made the t-shirts, we had a car parade, and it was just to give him [a boost] on his long journey. We couldn\u2019t be by his side, we wanted him to know we would always be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his radiation, they were able to present Jesse with the first round of donations and by November of last year he went into remission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was two weeks before his 22nd<\/sup> birthday and it was just happiness, it was like he conquered the world,\u201d says Jamie. \u201cHe showed that regardless of his struggles he killed brain cancer. Fast forward to his passing, it was by far one of the worst days we experienced in our lives and it was unbelievable to see the support we had here in the community as everyone knew the journey that he went on, that our family went on, and we knew we just couldn\u2019t stop what Jesse believed in, which was his mental health aspirations, his fitness journey, his fitness goals and, the most important thing, helping others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping others is a driving force behind the establishment of the JesseStrong Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Jesse\u2019s passing in February, they have already raised more than $12,000 to help kids secure swimming lessons and make summer camp more affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether people purchase a sticker for $5, a hoodie for $60, they just want to help and be a part of the next journey in our lives without Jesse,\u201d says Justin. \u201cThey all knew his aspirations and they want to be a part of it. They want to be such a big thing that anyone they know can receive help, whether they want to do swimming lessons or go to camp. The most [common] thing we\u2019ve heard is \u2018Jesse would love this\u2019 and \u2018Jesse would have done this.\u2019 It just shows that people who don\u2019t live under the same roof as him have the same goals in their lives to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds dad Max: \u201cWith the foundation we will keep his memory alive. He was one of those special kids who cared about others before he cared about himself so much. When you\u2019re down, there\u2019s always light at the end of the tunnel and you can\u2019t get down on yourself. If it is just to help somebody, that is what he always used to do. He was the kind of kid who went through chemo, radiation, 13-hour brain surgery all by himself because COVID didn\u2019t allow us to go into the hospital to be by his side. He took that negative and turned it into a positive: he became friends with the nurses, went to other rooms to talk about other people who were going through the same thing, saying, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s all going to be good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world needs more of Jesse to make it a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the JesseStrong foundation, visit printdotcom.ca or follow them on Instagram @jessestrong.foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a swim instructor and camp counsellor, Jesse Benudiz was known for his energy and love of life. Known to friends and family for his \u201cinfectious smile\u201d and \u201ccontagious energy\u201d he spread sunshine wherever he went, including the hospital where he bravely waged a battle against brain cancer. Now, just two months after his passing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2021-04-15-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7zQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 14:01:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}