Skate4Cancer-CHANGING THE WORLD
Rob with my son, Lloyd
In 2008, Rob Dyer skated by the corner of Hwy 614 and Hwy 17, during his cross Canada adventure raising awareness for cancer. I didn’t know at that time, just how special Rob was. It was clear that he was a very friendly, personable man as I tried to touch base with him hoping to write a story for local papers about his trip and had no trouble tracking down his personal cell (something that is usually impossible when people are doing such things and seeing themselves as ‘celebrities’). A bit of telephone tag, and I finally spoke to Rob, he and his driver at the time, photographer, Erin Hogue, would be leaving Marathon the next day and so Lloyd, Cody and some other skater friends decided to go out to meet him. I never got to meet Rob face to face, I met Erin but there was construction going on on the 17 back then and he was on the other side, having some difficulty getting through where the pavment had been removed – he would be delayed. Emeraude was also with us and I was in a bad state medically and could not risk driving at dusk nor tyring myslef out waiting; thankfully Cody’s awesome Mom was there… She let Lloyd stay with her and E and I left to return home to Manitouwadge.
The guys with Rob (photo by Linda Oseicki)
Well, they skated quite a distance along side him (his board had custom wheels which were huge to help make highway riding more feasible, the boys though on their regular boards did a pretty greaet job keeping up) they spoke with him, but more importantly they did a lot of listening to Rob’s message, learning about Skate 4 Cancer , that Rob lost his Mom to cancer, that this loss motivated the creation of the Skate4Cancer movement which is not about raising money but about raising awareness (one of his tag lines is Knowledge is the Cure) of cancer, how to stay healthy, fighting the disease and I don’t know about the other kids but Lloyd was incredibly inspired by Rob. He is a very soft-spoken man in his early 20s (I think), unbelievably kind and warm. His enthusiasm is contageous and even without meeting him in person I was moved by his story. Luckily the kids were travelling with a photographer (Cody’s Mom, Linda) and she took a bunch of photos which she later burned on to CD for each of them even printing an 8×10 of this one for each (so sweet).
Anyways, since then Rob certainly hasn’t slowed down… He’s travelled the world spreading his message of education, prevention and hope. Crossing Canada the US and New Zealand / Australia… He has been doing a European Tour with Billy Talent during Nov & Dec (this and last month). Weeks ago you may have seen him on L.A.Ink…
As usual he was soft spoken and full of class, passing his message along in a very humble manner.
Prior to that, I had watched another video from Rob… This one is a favourite of mine, not among his videos but among all videos. It is so nice to see ‘young’ men being so real. Hilarious that Rob subs in as the ‘girl’ but still very serious, in true Rob Dyer style he is never offensive and I would love to see this video shown in health classes at all schools from grade 6 and up that young girls (and young boys for all the reasons they mention on the vid) might take home the knowledge that will not only serve THEM for a life time but also all those they might pass it on to. If you have kids, share this video with them, share it with your sister, your mother, your aunt… You get the idea – Make it MOVE and SHARE IT!
How awesome was that? I love it, so awesome to have a video that teens will take seriously and actually pay attention to and then they get in the habit of doing breast self exams FOR LIFE!
So, as you can s, Rob is doing grat stuff (If you visit him at www.skate4cancer.com there is a ton of information as well as really cool stuff like S4C mechandise).
So, what else is Rob up to these days (as if a European tour was not enough!). Well he is trying to raise funds t build a skate4cancer drop-in centre in Toronto. The Aviva Community Fund could be a big help in doing this, Rob’s cause is currently in 20th place, West49 (wicked cool canadian skate company – one of Lloyd’s favourite stores) is helping to promote him in this effort by emailing there contact list sending the link to vote to all there customers, I’d bet MTV is probably also spreading the message as they have backed Rob up with sponsorship throughout his cross country adventures in North America… YOU can help by visiting http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf1885 and voting for him, it just takes a second and could make such a huge difference in Ontario as a whole (and the world as I am certain Rob won’t stop at having a drop-in just in his own back yard).
Looking forward, in Spring 2010 Rob has a new line of athletic shoes coming out with Circa Shoes… Awesome!
