Word of Myles Mattila's work has reached the highest office in the land and the holder of that office reached out directly to the 18-year-old Prince George hockey player.
On Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a message to Mattila via Twitter, congratulating him for his efforts in promoting youth mental health and for receiving a major accolade from B.C. Hockey, the Chair of the Board Award.
Mattila, a recent graduate of the Prince George-based Cariboo Cougars major midget program, was sitting in his bedroom when the tweet came in and couldn't quite process what he was seeing.
"I was in my room, on Twitter at the time, and I saw Justin Trudeau actually mentioned me in a tweet in French first," Mattila said.
"I was like, 'Huh, what is really going on?' And then he tweeted one in English and I was like, 'Wow! Justin Trudeau actually tweeted at me.' I ran upstairs and told my parents and they couldn't believe it - they thought I was just joking around but they looked for themselves and, sure enough, he actually did tweet at me.
"He usually tweets out about political stuff, not so much about hockey players and being involved in mental health so that was awesome to see."
Mattila, now living in Kelowna where he will start junior hockey in the fall with the Kelowna Chiefs, was presented the Chair of the Board Award while at the B.C. Hockey annual general meeting earlier this month at Sun Peaks Resort.
The award, given to an individual who has "brought honour to the amateur hockey fraternity through an outstanding humanitarian endeavour," recognized him for shining a light on the importance of youth mental health and creating avenues of support for those who are struggling.
Mattila began his campaign during his early high school years. Last summer, he founded a program called MindRight, which was launched with help from the Cariboo Cougars.
The program includes a website, mindright.info, and has since drawn the attention of more than 90 minor hockey associations in B.C.
Mattila hasn't limited his work to MindRight. In May, he led a Balancing Our Minds youth summit in Prince George and he's also a spokesperson for mindcheck.ca, which came into being after former Vancouver Canucks player Rick Rypien - suffering from clinical depression - took his own life in August 2011. Mattila also recently joined Foundry BC, a new network that offers wellness services for young people.
Mattila said the tweet by Trudeau is helping to spread the word about the issue of youth mental health.
"I just think it's really exciting that my message, which I've been doing the last few years, is finally getting through," Mattila said. "And also, (the tweet) really helped out a lot - lots of exposure."
Mattila's youth mental health initiatives also received recent recognition from another prominent Canadian, Trevor Linden. The former Canucks captain and the team's current president of hockey operations had a $2,500 scholarship in his name awarded to Mattila, who was one of four recipients around B.C. While Mattila is playing hockey for the Chiefs this coming season, he'll be attending post-secondary classes in business and law.
