EP64 Jane Roos and Conrad Leinemann - CAN Fund

This is episode 64 of the Empowered Athlete podcast. Let's start with a question. What do 80% of all the Canadian athletes who competed in Pyeongchang, Rio, London, Vancouver, Beijing, Torino and Athens have in common besides really low body fat percentage? The answer, my friends, is they were supported by the Canadian Athletes now fund. That's 80% of all Canadian athletes who are competing at all of those games. Since 2003, the fund has raised over $40 million to support amateur Canadian athletes and has basically propped up the system in Canada, taking up the place where Sport Canada has let athletes fall through the cracks and and feel unsupported in their quest for the Olympic Games. The fund started by Jane Roos, who was involved in a tragic accident at 19, made her switch have a look at fundraising. She started the fund and her husband, Conrad Linerman has joined her in creating this mammoth fundraising machine taking Canadian athletics to the next level. Of course, they're an extremely busy couple, so for this interview we broke it up into two parts. First, we chat with Conrad, get his background, a little bit about his life as a professional volleyball player and representing Canada on the beach courts around the world. And then we bring in Jane, who created the fund to get her background story on how it all started and where the fund is heading. There are so many ways to support Canadian athletes and this is the best one the Can Fund or Canadian Athletes Fund. The links are down below in the show notes so that you can find ways to support athletes around you, spread the word about them. It's the holiday season, it's time to give. Let's give Canadian athletes the boost they need to go to the next level and enjoy the show. Are you 6, 5, 225 and male or maybe 5, 4, 1, 10 and female? Are you a swimmer, runner, gymnast or hockey player? Have you had three knee surgeries like me or a shoulder that tends to get sore? We all have different bodies and and it makes sense that we require specific training and adjustment for best results. Are you self motivated, ready for consistency and want to follow a training plan customized for your needs? Maybe you are ready to be coached.

Being trained typically means you rely on someone to take you through each workout. Being coached means you are ready to do it on your own but want the guidance from from an expert to efficiently get to your best results while staying accountable. If you're ready to be coached, then contact us for an assessment in person or online and we will make a customized training program for you to get to your goals. Welcome to the Empowered Athlete podcast created to support athletes in their pursuit of excellence and inspire others toward their best lives. Hosted by Kari Schneider, coach to top performers in sport and life, and Paul.

Durden, former national and professional volleyball player.

All right, everyone, welcome to the Empowered Athlete Podcast. And we are excited to be joined.

By the the Conrad lineman.

The close associate of mine in the beach volleyball world. Conrad and I met years ago. You had put in your form around, you thought maybe 93 or 94 out in UBC.

Is this your secret desire to have played beach?

Or was this, oh, no, I can't pass.

I'm not going on the beach?

He wasn't a finesse player.

No.

But we're excited to have Conrad with us. Conrad, obviously you're working now with the CAN Fund. We might be joined by wife Jane later on, but we've got you for the moment and we want to dig into first, no pun intended, how you got involved just in sport and elite sport and playing the game for Canada.

So I started playing Volleyball in Kelowna, B.C. with one of the best high school coaches in Canadian history. Rod Balinski. Sat on the bench in grade 8, grade 9, grade 10 and grade 11. Finally made the starting lineup in grade 12. And then I went to UBC. I played four years there, and then I came to Toronto to be with the national team and play beach volleyball. John Child and Mark Hees, who won the bronze in 96. I came to Toronto to train with them who were the best teams and best team in the world at the time. And I was last and I worked my way up and both the men's teams were top 10 in the world for many, many years. So I was pretty cool experience. Got to travel around the world and represent our amazing country, Canada.

That's incredible. Now, you've just described being the underdog. You've described being the bench warmer. And so many people can't handle that, so they kind of fall off of their sport. But clearly you had a desire, you had a love for the sport and that kept you going. And personally, what I've seen in that situation is, is that those athletes tend to be the workers. They tend to be the harder workers. Is that how you would describe yourself?

I was a very hard worker. I love to work hard. Even though I wasn't as good as everybody, I came in and I did the work. When you get to the level at a high level at any, in any sport, you have to be willing to do the work. If you're not willing to do that, it's just not going to Work. So it all starts with hard work. And I got tied in with some amazing coaches that pushed me and literally doing throw up type training, which I love to see what my body was capable of and what level I could keep pushing it. Um, but yeah, it was, I was definitely in one of the best shape athletes, I think, on the world tour.

Do you think that kind of training, when you survive it, you go through it, you see the growth. Do you think that that helped you grow mentally and grow your confidence as well?

Well, absolutely. When you, when you think that you can, when you're physically. What's the best way of saying this? When I'm compete. When I was competing, I was in such good shape. I had like this mental, I don't want to say capacity, but it was like, I just felt like I had a really good chance of winning this match, like just by physical being physically fit. Because in beach volleyball there's two on two, not like indoor, like six on six. You got other players like subs, but it's two on two, no subs. And if it's really hot. So we're playing in 45, 52 degrees Celsius. It comes down to who's in the best shape to handle the heat. And that's where we actually thrived. Jody and I, we, we're in very, very good shape. And that's where we would do well. We'd finish on the podium when it was really hot.

Yeah, I totally get that. On the indoor side, never got that hot. We got pretty sweaty playing down the Amazon against Brazil. But yeah, I thought it almost, it gives you a mental armor in that if you've.

That's a better way of putting it.

The longer the match went, if we were going to fifth set, the more excited I got because I just felt more and more confident I was gonna be able to do more than guys on the other side of the net and maintain the level I was at. And they were gonna drop off and knew it. And it's like you're saying, you know, it energizes you because, you know, you've put that crazy amount of work in and that's when it all pays off. So it's a great feeling to have as an athlete.

I would, I would always say in, in watching him in a fifth set, he would almost have another gear that nobody else had. And then beyond that, it's just actually the same gear.

Right.

But it looks like it's another gear because everyone else is dropping off. And then at the same time, for my athletes, I would always say, look, the higher you get in national level sport, the closer you are going to be when it comes to skill level, when it comes to all of the tactics and technical aspects and that skill level, the closer it's going to be. And if there's going to be something that sets you apart, let it be that. If you can't like enhance that skill anymore because you're at that point of diminished returns, then let you be the fitter one, let you be the stronger one. So that that's going to be the thing that they fall off with.

So, yeah, when we were playing in Brazil, in Rio, when it was really, really hot, back in the day, you could take a medical time out and get an iv, which is illegal now, but back in the day, so this time out, during a technical, during a medical timeout, these are the stories we're getting an iv, A guy from Argentina comes back onto the court and he's just literally wobbling. And again, beach ballet, there's no subs. It's either you play or don't play, and you're out. So this guy was literally. And they served him again. He calls another timeout. So that's he's used his medical and regular timeout. He jumps into a big pool of water where they use to water down the court because it was so hot you would burn your feet on the sand. He jumped in there, 30 seconds later, he comes out on the court dripping, like, pouring like water all over him. They serve him again. He can't. Done, you're finished. So like you said, I felt like I could maintain it, whereas other players, literally, you physically could see like they were done. And that's where we thrived.

And the fitter you are, the more capable you are of regulating your body temperature in those extreme environments, which is fantastic. Cool, cool.

So give us maybe highlight. It was basically 10 years. You were the national team, at least correctly. What was the high? And if it's something other than 99 in Winnipeg, love to know what it is. But what were kind of the highlights and maybe what was the low that you also went through in that time?

Definitely a highlight was winning the Pan Am Games gold medal. But we had to play the world champions in the semifinal. Franco and Roberto, they are the number one beach volleyball team in the world at that time. So we beat them in the semis and then we actually had to beat the number one Brazilian team, which was actually ranked ahead of these guys, but they didn't like to travel, so we had to beat them so we had to beat two Brazilians back to back to win that. So that was definitely. That was great because you're in Winnipeg, the whole stadium. Like, we're the old Blue Bomber Stadium. So we were playing right on the football field and they dumped sand on. So it was just. It was awesome. It was magical. But the other highlight was actually walking into opening ceremonies in Sydney, Australia. That was, you know, hey, awesome, I'm going to the Olympics. And I'm like, you're there. But when I came out of that tunnel and I looked around, 110,000 people in that stadium. I've never seen anything like that before. My jaw dropped to the ground and I think it was dragging along the. As I was walking, I just. I couldn't even talk. I was just looking at the crowd. It was like, holy moly. This is going to be awesome. This is going to be crazy. And we played at Bondi Beach. Just one amazing experience. No, sorry. And then going back to. There's lots, like. Yeah, like a lot of things. But one of the low points was playing in Russia and breaking my foot right in practice the day before the tournament. So, again, either you play with a broken foot or you don't play. So we pulled out, obviously had a broken foot. And that's when you know you. You're playing great, and it gets taken away from you. You're not able to play. That's when you realize, okay, I've lost it. And I came back, like, double impact. When I came back, I'm like, hey, it took me six weeks to recover, and when I came back, I was just like, I'm going to come back stronger, better. When it was taken away anyway, that was kind of one thing that pops into my mind.

There's such a hunger that comes from when what you want is unexpectedly taken away. You know, it's one thing when you kind of know you're 50, 50, or there's some sort of chance, but when it's unexpectedly taken away, then athletes are either crushed more, or then that hunger to come back is just magnified because they knew what they wanted. It was taken away, and now it's time to go and get that again.

That's why I love the Paralympic athletes. Some of them have been in a bad accident. Some of them were born with something somebody had. They had cancer. They have all different reasons why they're a Paralympic athlete. But one of them is Dominic, who. It's Remembrance Day today, and he was in the army and had his legs blown off from a bomb. He Came back to Canada, became a sledge hockey athlete and is now a gold medalist.

Wow.

Something taken away from you. Campbell literally lost his legs and now he's a gold medalist like that. It's just. They are amazing.

Do you know who Lee Carter is? He was a 2008 Beijing tennis player.

Oh, okay.

Paralympic. And then another one that's local here in London is. What's her first name? Mackenzie Spong. She's on the women's sledge hockey.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. So really, really cool. Yeah. And the work ethic there. But I want to just circle back for a second. You mentioned the Sydney opening ceremonies and that feeling, that feeling of not only representing your country, I imagine that's part of what it was, but also just seeing all the masses of people and what this who ceremony was representing and you being in it, we've seen so many times and we've interviewed so many different people in and Paul has experienced. It's really hard, once you're finished sport, to replicate those kind of highs, those kind of rewarding feelings from, you know, the fifth set win or the opening ceremonies. You know, now that you're not, you may be living vicariously a little bit through some other athletes, but for yourself personally, without having those kind of highs anymore once you're out of the sport. Was that challenging for you to kind of realize that, you know, it's hard to replicate that in real life. That's not there anymore. What was that like for you?

Well, so most athletes have a lot of problems once they stop competing. Their loss. You know, they've been on the national team for 5, 10, 15 years. They don't have an education now. They have to go back to school. They're floundering. Now there's a few more programs that are coming online to help those athletes, which is really cool. But with me, it wasn't too much of a big transition because I was helping with the charity as I was competing, so I was involved. But then once I was finished playing, even though I'd never retired, officially retired, I might come back out. Me and Paul.

You haven't made that door open. Keep that door open.

Keep the door open.

You never know. It was an easy transition for me to go and help athletes. I love to help people, and this is like an amazing vehicle to help. A lot of our best athletes represent Canada.

So let's. Yeah, let's dive into that a little bit more because clearly you being an athlete and being around other athletes, and Paul knows this as well, you see some serious needs that these athletes have. I've seen it for my entire career as well. What spawned the program that you've started? The can fund the Canadian athletes now.

Okay. So I don't know if I should be saving this for Jane and the whole story. Do you want to, or should I spill the beans a bit here?

Whatever feels right to you, we're happy to.

Well, maybe let's spin it back before Jane's able to join us. But step back to while you were still playing, what were you experiencing as an athlete that the fund addresses? That the fund is trying to address in terms of the support that you probably.

Well, so when I was competing, like, I know that the indoor team, like when you went to compete, you didn't say, okay, Paul, it's a fifteen hundred dollar flight. You guys didn't have to pay that, right? No, we did. We had to buy our volleyballs, we had to pay our coach, we had to pay his airfare, his hotel, his food, my food, my hotel. So it was basically on us. But the kicker to us, we could win prize money. So if we did well, we're gonna make a go of it. And if we don't do well, we're gonna starve. This isn't gonna last very long.

So, pardon, the carrot was there. The carrot was dangled in the prize money. But then at the same time it's like, what are you gonna do to get there?

Right? And so that was kind of my situation. But now I'm dealing with the summer athletes, winter athletes, and the Paralympic athletes. And every sport is, you know, if there's a sport that's doing well, they're getting more funding. If they're struggling, some of them are getting nothing. So you guys know about carding changes every year. Every year it changes. And if they have a bad year, boom, they lose all of their funding. Like, no mercy, right? So it's just constantly going up and down like this. But the big thing for the winter athletes in particular, they're paying to be on the national team, there's team fees. Most Canadians don't know about this, but some of the downhill skiers pay $25,000 each to their federation per year they are going to the Olympics. They have to pay 25,000. Skeleton, you know, they go head first down. 20,000. Bobsleigh athletes, 8,000. So we added up the team fees on all the athletes that were going to pyeongchang. It was over just under a million dollars in team fees that they paid. So that's like another major issue. But a Lot of the sports, they don't have, like I have all these competitions to go to, I gotta pay my airfare. So it's traveling costs. Some of them have to pay for crazy amounts of equipment. Again, it depends. It's hard to answer that question for all the sports because everyone, it's all different.

But then that's not even. And this is, this is the thing that's not even covering what it means to train as a high performance athlete. So whether it's their nutrition, whether it's their other services so strength and conditioning, their therapy, their extra treatments, their extra appointments that they need to just to stay in top shape. And with us having been in sport for so long and just knowing the ins and outs similarly to what you're describing, it would always shock me that most Canadians, the average person in Canada, not necessarily the U.S. but in Canada, would expect that that national team player or athlete or whatever they are, would expect that they've got some sort of major sponsorship or getting, you know, decent money from the government. Like they think they've got a solid salary above and beyond whatever it costs for their sport. And it's usually shocking for most people to learn that they're living well below the poverty line and typically going into debt, just trying to play or participate or compete in their sport.

So are you going to start working for us? Because that's exactly what we've been saying.

I've lived it for my whole career, so I totally get it.

There are exceptions. Obviously there's some athletes that do well, but for the most part, yeah, there are exceptions, but for the most part, a majority of our athletes need help. And that's where can fund comes in. And we give $6,000 to the athlete, up to 12 twice a year. So they get $12,000 from us and we help basically 80% of the team. Since 2004, since Athens, we've helped basically 80% of the Olympic team winter and summer, going all the way back to 2003, when we really started kicking butt, because that's when we got charitable status. We helped 244 out of the 266 athletes that went to Athens. Wow. We've been around a while and we've. But we've got a lot more work to do. Like we're having over a thousand athletes. They're applying right now, the deadlines on Thursday, but we're gonna hit over a thousand athletes trying to get $6,000 from us. So it's not like, hey, we're trying to raise 100,000 we're trying to raise multi millions of dollars.

When you like, you know now as a charitable organization and you've been at this for a while, you know, and there's different ways, like if you think of charity water or different long time charitable organizations, are you starting to just really get creative in terms of how to build this fund, how to get more donations? Like, what does this look like? Because this is such a massive endeavor.

This is.

You're doing what isn't available from Sport Canada or the provincial bodies or the sport bodies. And so you're doing it on your own. I mean, obviously you have partners, you have people who are donating, but is there a creativity side of it that just has you go, okay, like what do I do next to try and make this happen?

There's tens of thousands, there's 86,000 charities in Canada and they're all great. They all have their own niche and they're important. But we're raising money for healthy people trying to win a medal at the Olympics. Hey, I'm going to go to this market.

It's amazing.

You have to be extremely creative. And that's where Jane is the master. She's the mastermind behind all of our ideas. She'll go into a meeting and I don't know how she does it, but she gets big dollars from people. And once they realize, I think the big thing is Canadians need to know that there's an issue. They need to know that is the first thing. And that is what we just started doing. We went right across Canada a few weeks ago. We were in Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver and Victoria. And we surprised 72 athletes with $6,000. So we handed out $432,000 in 10 days. And we had video cameras. So we were interviewing the athletes saying, hey, what do you need the money for? And how's the training going? What's missing? And they're like, oh my God, I don't know how I'm going to go to this World cup and I need this. And we drop, well, how much is that gonna cost? And we would surprise them with $6,000. So we had like amazing reactions. And that's what Canadian, that's what we had never done before. So those are gonna start coming out in the next few weeks. We're gonna start pushing those out so people can see like the athlete like crying, like surprised, like seriously doing that.

That's just like, that's the heartfelt stuff that lights up, up.

It's pretty awesome. So we were just. Did you guys know the Men's field hockey team just qualified.

Awesome.

I did three year communique earlier. Fifteen of them you supported, was it?

Yeah. So we supported 15 guys. So they beat Ireland, a crazy game in a sudden death shootout and we had 15 of them apply. So I'm just going to pull up. You can just hear their response. I'll just. So they're half an hour after the match and they're having a few drinks and celebrating. Right. Goes in and says, names off the 15 guys that have applied and we're going to give you $6,000 each. So we just gave them $90,000. This is their response. I'll just do the audio for you. They were jumping like you wouldn't believe. They just qualified. They don't get a lot of help and they were just blown away.

Sometimes when. Sorry.

People got to understand that they feel like that because they've got a dream of competing at the highest level and getting the Olympics. But the reality is there's massive stress on them financially, on all these athletes. And that stress takes away from their performance. It limits what they're going to do. You can't ignore it. It affects your sleep. It affects everything. And so you are removing that black cloud that's over them and freeing them up to do what they love to do. And that's just so both of you.

Guys are going to start working for us.

I think not only that, what people don't understand is that what it takes to get to a qualifier.

Oh, God, yeah.

And this is, you know, across. It's different for every sport. But most people are peaking for the qualifier because that's the Olympic qualifier. Bingo. And that's why you get world records at the qualifiers. You don't get them at the Olympics. You get Olympic records at the Olympics, but not at the, at the world, at the qualifiers. But what happens for so many people is they've worked so hard and everything, put everything out there for that qualifier and. And then they qualify. They got nothing left and that includes money. Like they've got nothing left after that. So it's like, yay, we've qualified. Holy crap, now what? Now I have to go out and look for sponsors to make it the rest of the way. And that just completely, like you said, takes away from what they've been trying to do.

So want to ask, we were, you know, talking about the creativity and the ideas to raise this money. What are the key things that you're doing with like the pillars?

Yeah. What are your main pillars?

The biggest one is Eric Sprott. So Eric Sprott is one of our big supporters. He's been around us almost 10 years, and he is offering a matching program of up to $3 million. So this is the largest personal donation in Canadian sport history. This is big. So there's no time frame on it, but we're trying to do it by crisp, like the New Year's, because this is when a lot of people start making donations. So our goal is basically December 31st. So that's huge. Like, right away, if you make a $50 donation, I just had somebody donate $5,000 on the weekend. Boom, it's matched by Eric. So it's super cool. He loves Canada. He loves our athletes. He loves seeing them single. Canada. He's just a proud Canadian, and he wants to back them. So Eric is our captain Canada. He's. He's amazing. But we also have a lot of different other programs that we do. The other one is the pre game meal where people are hosting their. Hosting a dinner. They invite their friends. We bring the athlete to the event. The athlete gets to share their story. They learn a little bit about Cannes Fun, and then it's. It's an invitation if they'd like to donate. So we've gotten $50 donations, and we've had people donate $5,000 at the dinner. Most people don't know about Camp Fun yet, which is what we're trying to change. We're not a household name, so that's one. It's called the pregame meal. Super cool we've done. Companies can adopt an athlete for $10,000. You get a tax receipt, they find out who they felt. That's the cool thing about the charity. They will. If you make a $50 donation, you'll find out where that money is going. That's like charity water. Charity water does an amazing job. You see the drill, you see the whole thing. It's awesome. That's what we try to do with can fund.

Even if something doesn't pan out the way you're hoping for, you find out, you learn what actually happened.

Well, so as far as, like, you mean if the athlete qualifies or not. Right.

Well, didn't work for water. And if the athlete, you know, didn't qualify or whatever, you still know you were a part of helping that happen.

And a lot of our athletes, they don't qualify. They don't qualify, but they're in the process of qualifying. They're on the world stage. They're going to all these qualifiers all around the world. And obviously, a lot do qualify. We're helping our very best athletes. But they might get injured, they might not hit the standard for whatever reason. But that does happen. We can't control that. But the people will know the athlete that they did support. So that's the cool thing that's kind of our nugget behind can fund.

But at the same time, you know, when you're talking about in a way you're competing with other charities that are, you're raising money for maybe the sick or different scenarios that way. And like you said, this is for the healthy. But in a way it may align with some people or organizations who are really wanting to support someone who has that kind of drive and know that they need something. So it gives an opportunity to match to someone who wants to give to someone who's really driven and really inspired and can set an example for people who don't know what that looks like or you know, need to feel inspired.

Well, our donors are not sports people. It's kind of funny. They're not, they're, they're proud Canadians. They just love watching the Olympics. They are entrepreneurs. They are second generation Canadians that have come here with nothing and have built an empire are now wanting to help other athletes.

They get the concept of starting from scratch and working with very little and making something from nothing.

Exactly. An entrepreneur starting their new business with very little money and the work ethic that they just love our athlete, that's our donor, that's our target. And we're just obviously trying to connect with many people at if they would know about us, they would donate to us.

Yeah, yeah. And what's that? How do you, how do you get people to know about you? Is it social media? Is it, is it. You know what's. And you have another pillar I think yet still. But what, how do people learn about can fund.

Social media for sure. But you know What? The number one promoter of U.S. are the athletes. When you give them money there. So we've had. I'll share one quick story about how powerful the athletes can be. It's was at the Olympics in 2008, the men's eight rowing team won by the largest margin in Olympic history. So these guys are machines. They won. And Ron McClain was interviewing them and said who here would like to talk about can fund? So we helped eight of those guys leading up to the Olympics multiple times. And Ben Rutledge, all he said was without can fund I wouldn't have this gold medal around my neck. It's basically all he said. The phone started Ringing off the hook. And now we got it in contact through a foundation that donates $54,000 to us every year because of that interview. So when the athletes speak up and they're endorsing us, it is our number one selling point for the charity.

So that begs the question. I had the chance to live in Europe for 14 years and see how sport is over there. I always think back to l', Equipe, which is the national sports newspaper in France, where I could open that up and you know that the first three or four pages are going to be about football. So soccer.

Yep.

Once you get through that, you've got rugby, you've got track, you've got tennis, you've got auto racing, you've got everything. So that amateur athletes are front and center all the time. Canada, they're front and center every four years. So you get that incredible publicity at the Olympics 2008, this silence, radio silence for anyone who's interested in rowing for another four years, they can't see it. And when you mention that you're going across the country and filming these people and getting those reactions, that seems like the perfect game plan. Because from what I've learned from CBC broadcasting with them at the games, they say tell a story. The people watching, yeah, they can watch the athletes compete, but what they remember is the story. And so if you can link that story to the athlete and be able to tell it, obviously outside of the games, that's going to get the people bought in and loving can fun and what you guys are doing. And so it sounds like the move there to do that and it's just getting that platform to get it out more consistently is obviously the challenge. But the other thing I worry about, sorry to ramble here, but you guys are doing such a good job. Is Sport Canada easing off the pedal because you're doing such a good job. Because in my mind Sport Canada is never doing enough.

Yeah, well, back in the day when you were carded, you were getting $810 a month. I don't know if you remember that. Do you remember 810?

Yeah. But we were also supported by, and I had this as a professional player, I was paying $7,500 of my contract back to the full time center to support the young athletes coming in. So there's a step coming from the pros younger generation which we were super lucky to have. Other sports didn't have that. Yeah, my carding check, we were a C card when I was living in Calgary, it was 850amonth.

Right. So when, okay, so when that happened, we did a commercial that was done pro bono for us saying 70% of our Canadian athletes live below the poverty line. Well, that caused quite a stir. I'll leave it at that. So then they bumped it up to 1100.

To make it off the poverty line.

And we still continue because it was still below the poverty. Then they bumped it to $1,500. So we had, we couldn't use those commercials. We had to change the commercial. It was directly. We don't know that 100%, but it was literally like a month after these two commercials came up, they just went boom and boom, higher.

So there's some of the full time training center guys that I was training. We were. They were training day in and day out. So six days a week, all winter long. They weren't pros. This is all they did. And they had their carding money to live on. And they would, a bunch of them would live together. A couple of these guys, I'm not going to mention names, would collect the shower water in a bucket while they're showering to repurpose the water in the bucket for anything from toilet dishes, you name it. But they'd be repurposing their water to save on utilities. How crazy is that? You can guess who. They have that kind of mindset. You can guess who they were. I'll tell you later. But to have that kind of mindset, to be choosing muffins over something else because they're on sale for 30% off, because they're the stale ones or, you know, that's. That's what, that's what it means to be making somewhere around that thousand dollars a month and try to train at the same time.

Well, the rowing team, they were all getting sick. So Mike Spracklin goes to their house and there's a whole bunch of them because they're all packed into one place to save money. He's like, it's freezing in here. Turn the heat on. They're like, we can't turn the heat on. We're eating. We need the money for food.

And that's the thing. It's the.

And.

Or you're choosing, okay, am I going to spend a hundred bucks more a month on heat or am I going to spend it on food? Like, what is it? And they're typically depending on the athlete, they're going to spend it on food because that's what they know they need.

Well, the rowers are training sometimes three times a day. They're eating 7,000, one guy was up to 10,000 calories per day. That's a lot of food. And now you got to be putting in good fuel into your system, which isn't cheap. So when we talk to the rowers, hey, what are you going to use the money for? All of them say, food. I need it for. I need for food.

And that's one of the things when it comes to. If they got a spot that was a food sponsor, they don't want to accept, say, a Subway or, you know, wherever because it's crappy food. You know, they don't. They want to choose what they're eating because they know what they need to train well with. They know what their body wants and needs well.

And so they actually. So it's funny you say that. They actually had $500 a month from a grocery store out in Victoria. So all the athletes were getting that. So it's $6,000 for the year. But they lost that sponsorship deal. So I'm calling athe. What do you need money for? Well, we just lost this, and I need money for food. Oh, that's 6,000. Well, we'll cover that. They're like, what? What do you mean you're gonna cover that? I need that for food. This is awesome. So, yeah, again, every sport's different, but the rowers, there are machines. These guys, there's no hiding. It's like, hey, I'm gonna go party tonight. They get hooked up to heart rate monitors on the Erg. They know exactly what's going on and they train and it's all like, fine tuned.

Yeah.

If you're not feeling well at volleyball practice, you can kind of take it down a couple notches and maybe people won't notice too, too much. But in rowing, you're hooked up to a gauge, man, like the. The erg. No hiding.

Might as well have a. Have a wrist. Your jail thing.

Yeah.

Tracking device, which is basically what you can do now when it comes to your heart rate variability. Your monitors, your. All of that. So you can do all of that now.

Hi, everyone, it's Paul cutting in for a second here to let you know that at this point in the interview, Conrad had to step away due to attend to the kids. And we pulled Jane into the conversation to get her background on how the Canadian Athletes Now Fund began. So enjoy this second part of the interview with Jane, the founder, the one, the driving force behind Cannes Fund.

Hi, guys. Jane, how are you?

Great. Hi, Jane.

Hi.

So we want to hear. I think we got three pillars of what can fund how you raise money. But how did this all get started? And Conrad says that you've got kind of some of the insight or some of the story as to how it all got started.

Yeah, well, I started it, pretty much. I was an athlete. I was a heptathlete. I did seven events, track and field. On a Saturday afternoon, my girlfriend was driving her parents to the airport in Montreal. We lived in Ottawa, and I went with her and we went to Montreal for dinner. And on the way home, she fell asleep at the wheel of the car. We went off a cliff and she died. And I lived. And so I woke up in the hospital and I'd lost my best friend. I had lost my ability to compete anymore. So life changed really quickly for me. I think anyone who's been an accident survivor of a fatal car accident or who has been through a lot, that's trauma. You wake up and you kind of have to Takes a while. I wandered for a while. I came to Toronto. I had a track coach, Andy Higgins, reached out to me and just said, why don't you come to Toronto, get into a new environment. I said, I can't compete anymore. And he goes, I know, but you should be around people who are of the same mindset. You should just come to Toronto. So I came to Toronto and I ended up having a second back operation at Toronto Western. And my roommate in the hospital had survived a brain aneurysm. So we both were feeling pretty grateful to be given a chance to live our lives. And so we decided to do a fundraiser. And we got the nurses involved and we picked a location and we just would fax people information saying, we're doing a fundraiser. We don't know what for, but it's gonna be for something good. I don't know if it was because we're in the hospital. They all believed us, but people got on board. They couldn't see me. I was in the hospital room. So we got out the night before, we raised 40,000s. So in the very, very beginning, athletes would come. I said, why don't we start supporting Canadian athletes? So in the very beginning, athletes would come to my house in Toronto and they'd give me plane ticket receipts or grocery receipts. And then people are like, you just can't have random people showing up at your house. I said, well, they're athletes. They compete for Canada.

We can trust them.

So really, what was just something wanting to help a few people on the global stage as they were gearing up back then, it was for Sydney and the games in Sydney, it turned into something. So in 2003, we got charitable status, and that meant we could officially give tax receipts. That was a lot of doing. From taxi, doing commercials and having more and more athletes applying, we created an application. So it all just came. I think any entrepreneur, anybody that started something, you don't really see where it's going to go. You just keep creating and hoping, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more people start getting involved. And from volunteers to board of directors to everybody. And we managed going into those Olympics in Athens, we funded 244 of the 266 athletes that competed for Athens, competed for Canada in Athens. And we've kept that legacy alive. We have funded 80% of every team since Athens. Right to Pyeongchang.

That's incredible. What is your. If you started with 40,000 on that first year, what have you grown to in what you raise now per year, typically?

Well, that's a good question. I mean, we're one year out to Tokyo. I feel like Canadians always start to care more as we get closer to the Games, but our job is to make them care more. Now we have a 3 million matching. So every donation that comes into camp fund right now is getting matched up to 3 million. And so right now my goal is 6 million by Christmas, and we have 2 more million to raise to go. I think right now. I mean, we have such. We've been really creative. I feel like most of our donors are entrepreneurs or business people. And I think the commonality with them is, you know, no one, when you're a business owner or an entrepreneur or in the business, you can go to the bank and get bank loans, and you can go and meet people and get investors. And, you know, everybody's kind of investing in you and your potential. Athletes can't get investors. They don't go to banks for loans. But. And they don't want to handout. I always say this. None of the athletes I've ever met who we've supported ever want to hand out. They just really want to represent Canada. And when they do and they do a great job, we take them and cheer for them and we make them our own. I think the great thing about athletes is they show people excellence. And I think we all need to see excellence in our lives. And I feel like getting people to care now is our job. That's what I'm trying, you know, to get people to understand that it's the journey, not the destination, that matters. And I just spend my Days cold. Calling, calling athlete referrals, calling donors. The hiccup is we have kept most of our donors just the demand from athletes jumps every year. So we have an application right now and we're gonna probably hit almost a thousand athletes applying. So everyone's relying on us. And I think right now we're just trying to be, you know, it's a really critical time for most athletes trying to qualify. This is like an eight year, four year dream that they've put their entire life to commit to it. And I just want to see more and more athletes succeed so we have more representation and you know, we have better role models for everybody.

Yeah. Yeah.

Do you have a favorite, I don't want to say a favorite athlete. I'm sure you love most of the athletes you deal with. Do you have a favorite story, a success story or somewhere where you felt the difference you made? That athlete's life was maybe a little more than others experience.

That's hard because I feel like every athlete is so different. I mean, yeah, I mean you get to meet athletes and some of them will say like this getting Canton was the reason why they qualified or they got new equipment. I mean, I've had an athlete say to me, he was, we phoned him on the phone and he was out cycling. He had a flat tire, it was pouring rain. And we told him he was a camp fund recipient. And he said his day he walked his bike back in the rain. He was so excited and happy. I think the athletes, you know, I love the athletes who give back. Claire Hughes going into Reno applied to us and needed more money for physio. She said, I'm a well known athlete but I'm paying for my own physio. When she went to the games and won, she gave her money back. I've had athletes now a lot of our older athletes who have been CAN fund recipients who've retired and moved on in life are becoming monthly donors. They're becoming the 150 women. I don't know if Conrad talked about 150 women, not that one. So two years ago I noticed that most of my donors were predominantly male and female. Founder and I thought, wow, like here's women coast to coast around the world saying that women need to support women, but yet. And our female athletes do incredibly well on the world stage. So we launched a program called Can Fund 150 Women. It's $150 to donate and you support only female athletes. So it's women supporting our female athletes who compete for Canada our youngest 150 women is 18. Our oldest is 85. We just. I think we're now at 136 athletes, female athletes supported by women coast to coast. So we took pretty much. There wasn't any funding coming in that model, and now we've funded 136 female athletes at $6,000 each. We turned 2 on November 26th, and we're doing a summit in Toronto. But my goal is to have hit the 150 mark. So 150 athletes funded by 150 women. It's pretty cool. I mean, from a standpoint of when you phone a female athlete or meet with one, we surprised a lot just recently. And you say to them, not only are you a cancer recipient, but the money you're receiving is from women who believe in you and supporting your dream. And I think that in itself is a whole other conversation. It's just been so fulfilling to watch the women that we're supporting saying, you know, you're supported by women. And I think the women who give, they're starting to share. Like, we created a membership, so they start to share their interests and passions and networks together. So everybody's benefiting. I think Most of my 150 women members say they get more out of it from each other than they actually do. They love supporting the female athletes. That was the incentive or the reason why they joined. But we have events, we have talks about. We do classes of different things. We have conference calls. So most of the women who've joined have said, I'm getting more out of it than I ever thought I would.

Yeah, the reward is exponential. Yeah.

I mean, it's just been great. I mean, I feel like there's a lot of charities out there, and I feel like Canadian athletes are different. There's not many people who represent Canada on the world stage. They do. They wear the maple leaf. And I always say during the games, I get total redemption. I will call you until you say no. And Canadians have a habit of avoiding. Instead of saying no, people will say to me, I just can't say no to you. And I'm like, I actually prefer no than, like, you know, silence. Right.

Takes longer to get a no. It's okay.

No, I prefer yeses. But I always tell people, I collect 10 no's a day, so I'm fine with a no. But during the Olympics, I always get redemption because people are like, this is what you were bugging me about. You wanted me to help these kids that we're watching right now. That's right. So we're pretty lucky that our donors get it. We have lots of really proud donors, and they understand that no one succeeded without the support of somebody else. And they all have had someone support them. And I feel like they really admire the tenacity and the dedication and courage these athletes. Like, they're really vulnerable. Like, you're showing up every day. Like when we were at Elk Lake just recently, all these rowers, the men are right now training to do a seat race. And, you know, you're not only qualifying your boat, but now you're competing against your teammates for spots in those boats. So.

It'S heart wrenching because you know that one of your best buddies who you've been competing with and supporting with, is going to get bumped if you make it.

Yeah. And, I mean, I think, too, as Canadians, I think we take a lot for granted. I think there's a lot of stories right now and talk about, you know, Canada is the best country, but, you know, there's so few people that bring such national pride than our athletes. And you see it in. You see it in talent. We know Canada Day, everybody is like, you know, we're so proud of our different, you know, people who've made it on the world stage. And our athletes, you know, I feel like they give a lot back and they don't want a lot. They just don't want to necessarily go into debt representing Canada. And I feel like the fact that people can, you know, donate, get a tax receipt, find out which athlete they help, there's a huge connection instantly.

You know, everything that I've heard from both you and Conrad, it points to more than just the money. It points to a feeling of acknowledgment, like the fact that they've been chosen, the fact that there's someone following them, the fact that you've taken the time to phone them. All of these things are that connection and that acknowledgement that people want. And typically, our athletes aren't being acknowledged. They're busting their butts behind the scenes. Nobody knows about it. We mentioned this with Conrad and that most of the sports aren't getting covered by news media. They're there. It's the main teams, the big four, that are getting covered, but not the rowers, not the triathletes, not the, you know, speed skaters or the biathletes are on and on. But it sounds like what you're doing is more than just fundraising, more than just gaining donations. It's acknowledging them as well. And that leads me to ask, would you say that is it the phone calls of letting them know. Is that one of your favorite things? Like, what is your favorite part about all of this?

Well, I mean, the funny thing is I actually stopped doing the calls a while back, and I just started raising the money. Like, we really need to raise a ton of money. So I'm pretty much. That is my role. So I'm constantly on phones and following up, and I don't think people realize it's not easy asking people for money. For athletes. I love it. I'll call anyone. I feel like this last tour, so in the original days of Cannes Fun, I used to get invited to weddings. I used to. I was really familiar with the athletes and their parents and their stories, and we used to pray athletes. And I feel like this last tour we just did, I had a chance to meet a ton of athletes. Like, I met Ellie Black, who's a gymnast, and she's a multiple Campbell recipient, and we were in Halifax, and I'm like, you know, Ellie, we never met. She's like, yeah, yeah, we've met. I know you. You're like, you know, I'm like, no, we haven't. So it was cool for me to get out of the office and to be more. Talk about the brand, talk about how we raise money. I want them to realize that we're as pretty much dedicated to them succeeding as they are. And so I think going across Canada and meeting the athletes, hearing their stories, was really touching for me. It kind of reminds you why you start something in the first place. Sometimes it's easy to get disconnected. I think everyone goes through it. As a business grows, you get disconnected from why. Not necessarily why you started it, but why do it day in and day out. And it's been really. It's. For me, it's refreshing, I think, when you help anyone. Like, I own a gallery as well, and I show. I show a lot of Canadian artists in my gallery only. And I think when you can just help someone on their career, I mean, we only have one life here. And, you know, that really resonates with me. And I feel like, you know, there's a day you're born and day you die, and in between, there's this little dash. And the dash is how you live your life. And I think there's lots of people helping more charities that are disease and disasters, which I totally think is awesome. But I, for me, helping people succeed and live their dream and, you know, get to where they want to go faster, better, easier. I feel like that's. I Mean, to me, that's what fulfills me. So that's my. I wake up every morning knowing that all my actions are going to actually help somebody else succeed.

Well, you have to say that. I know you said disease and disaster is obviously important, but if Canada is not active the way we should be active, the disease would be pretend. So it's the athletes that you're supporting inspire people to that activity, which leads to better health, which leads to. Leads to less disease. So you're fighting disease in your own way.

Yeah, I mean, there's a huge ripple effect. I mean, Canoe kayak for women will debut in Tokyo. You've got women's softball coming back. You've got swimmers. I mean, when Penny won all those golds in Rio, swimming increase. You know, I think when people see other people succeeding, they think it's possible for them. Right. So when you see the women's soccer team winning, or you see the men's field hockey team are going to Olympics, I mean, when you see people reaching their dreams, I think that's the thing. Like, when you hear an athlete talk, it's interesting about the sport they play and what they're doing. But, I mean, one of my favorite athletes is a female wrestler from St. Catherine. She's a mother of two. She started wrestling when she was younger, met her boyfriend, got pregnant, they got married, she had her two children, and now she's going back, and she wants to represent Canada at the Olympics. And she was doing phenomenally well. And when you talk to her, it's like. It's just like she's kind of doing her dream that she's always wanted to do. And I think that's the thing that's fulfilling, is when you see someone with passion and someone going after their dream. I don't care what it is. If you can just be the best at whatever you want to do, and you're living your life with commitment and vulnerability and passion, and you can get up every day and go after your dream. I mean, some people don't have that choice, and I understand that. But, you know, here in Canada, I mean, we have a lot of opportunities, and I feel like when our athletes do compete, they do bring people closer together. So, I mean, it's what I do. I love it. I love helping artists. I love helping. I mentor. I talk to entrepreneurs all the time. I'm more of an entrepreneur than a fundraiser. That would be my goal.

On a personal note, you know, you sound like you're balancing a lot. And when it comes to your business, Your charity, your family life, how did you guys meet on that personal side? And do you have kids too?

Daughters? We have. I met Con. I used to work at tsn and I met Conrad one night at an event and he was talking about beach volleyball. I'm like, canada has good beach volleyball teams. Like, I was like, what? So literally, hey, I went to TSN to work and I asked one of the producers if we could put together like a montage of him and his partner Jody Holden at the time. And literally within a few weeks, I became his agent.

So.

So I was Conrad's agent in the very beginning and we did really well. We created the Sunrise pep rally, which was in all the schools and he was sponsored by Subaru and we had Speedo and like, he literally had seven sponsors and we just created packages that were very fulfilling for the athlete and.

For.

Him, for the company supporting him. And it just kind of grew. And I worked with some other athletes and then it was, you know, the charity was going and I'm like, I really want to do more for more people. And then ironically, my dad got really sick and he, he had seven strokes and he used to. When he had his first stroke, I bought him a treadmill and I said, you know, 30 steps to walk me down the aisle. And he used to, like, I went into his house and there'd be like a booklet beside the treadmill with like screen scratches. And people who've had strokes, they scratch like they can't write properly. So he was counting his steps to walk me down the aisle. And then in 2001, we got a call that he had got pneumonia and that he had to put a tube in him and he was really sick. So I went back to Ottawa to stay with him in the hospital. Conrad and I decided to get married in the hospital, which ironically was the hospital that I went to after my car accident. So I got married in the hospital where I had been with my car accident. So it was a kind of full circle for me in that regard. But seeing, you know, my dad was there for us getting married and, you know, he was a lot of my inspiration, I think, because, you know, when you meet, when you're. He was 67 when he passed away away. And I feel like I'm very clear that, you know, my dad fought to live and he wanted to stick around. And so, you know, we have two children, we have a 14 year old daughter and a 7 year old daughter and life is busy. But, you know, if I think if you can do what you want to do in life and you kind of manage your time and you know, we're all spread so thin. But I feel like, you know.

You.

Always have choices, right, to do what.

You want to do every single day.

Yeah.

And on that note, for us to wrap up, I want to just acknowledge you and Conrad because what you're doing is so huge for so many athletes and I know that, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the day to day and what needs to be done done every day and get the tasks off the list. But you are living in an example of an inspiration for those athletes as well, because you're living what you really wanted to. You're living big. You're living a big, big life. So we really are grateful to have both of you on and we want to acknowledge you for everything you've been doing. The athletes just couldn't do what they've done without what you guys are doing. And we see it all the time. So we really, really appreciate what you're doing for all these athletes. And we know that it's more than just a payback. It creates legacy because they will eventually somehow, whether it's right back to can fund or some other way, end up paying it forward to other people. So it creates that ripple effect and that's what the world needs more of. And we really appreciate that and acknowledge you guys for what you're doing.

Oh, you know, thanks. Thanks. It means, I mean, thank you. We love what we do and it's really. There's lots of satisfying and it's just, it's awesome. I love it. So thank you. Thanks for having us on the show.

No problem. So glad to have you.

It's great to meet you. And we will post links in the show notes for everyone to get to your site to donate and get involved.

Yes.

Thank you.

Your best place for people to reach you is on Instagram. On where else? What are your favorite handles and your favorite contact methods?

Well, our website is mycanfund ca and you can instantly donate to 150 women on that site. You can donate to like just to can fund. There's a lot of information about our pregame meals and all the things we're doing. Our Twitter and our Instagram is anfund. We just created a new 50 Women Instagram and Facebook. I mean a lot of our donors are still on Facebook and they are. We put stuff up on Facebook all the time. I just put asking on Facebook saying, I have a female athlete in Toronto who needs a place, place to live. For the next few months and I got like four or five women people who said she can like, they'd be open to like hosting her. So I'm still a big believer in Facebook too. We're Canadian athletes now on Facebook.

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