Jeff Van Gyssel turns life’s 2nd chance to his 1st Champions for Charity fight in the ring
By Jeff Hicks
www.champsforcharity.ca
NEW HAMBURG —
The radio crackled.
Jeff Van Gyssel, drugs and a two-four in his pickup truck, lent a weary ear as heaviness suffocated the 28-year-old construction supervisor.
Darkness engulfed him as he sat parked in dense woods he never intended to leave.
Broken marriage. Broken man. Broken life.
But despair subsided as a Christian channel inexplicably tuned in on his truck. Hope for Hurting Hearts brought him to tears. For days, he wept joyfully as he left his dark addictions in the woods behind him.
That was 13 years ago.
“That night, our there in that bush, God gave me a second chance at life,” recalled Van Gyssel, one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 community Champions for Charity who will box for the first time at a sold-out Tapestry Hall on April 4 to benefit McMaster Children’s Hospital.
“I was filled with this hope and just a feeling that’s impossible to explain. I knew that life was just getting started.”
The faith he’d long pushed away through his years in Drayton, Elmira and Drumbo, was welcomed back in his life. A divine call came through loud and clear.
Hey, Jeff! Get up! I’ve got big plans for you.
And none of those plans involved the alcohol or cocaine or crystal meth that once consumed his personal time and devoured his first marriage.
He begin volunteering at a refugee transitional centre and discovered others suffering from the same depression and anxiety that had plagued him since he was a teen.
“While our stories were massively different, that was our connection,” said Van Gyssel, one of the business and community leaders who will box for Syd Vanderpool’s Red Team in the Brawl at Tapestry Hall.
“I just knew that something needed to be done.”
So a decade ago, the New Hamburg resident started his own company — Just Working Construction. The business focus is on heritage, green energy and affordable housing, everything from tiny houses to large multi-residential buildings.
The social focus is on getting newcomers to Canada working in the trades.
The Just stands for Justice.
“It just exploded,” said Van Gyssel, who has a world map in his office that gets a new thumb pin every time the company gets a worker from a new country.
“The amount of people who supported us, we quickly grew and gained tons of clients. It’s been incredible the people I’ve been able to employ, the number of people’s lives I’ve been able to be a part of and influence.”
Now, Van Gyssel is happy to use his personal commitment to exercise and diet to help Champions for Charity raise a goal of $450,00 for McMaster’s foundation.
He’s not a broken man any longer. He’s a driven man. A family man.
Every Saturday, he takes his cheer daughter Gabrielle, 8, to Kitchener market. She gets two honey sticks and fresh-squeezed juice. Every time.
When Gabi was two weeks old, she came down with meningitis.
Sick kids hospital in London saved her with their staff’s quick action. Helping McMaster do the same for other kids is a way of paying back.
Eight years later, Gabi trains and paints with her dad, when she’s not involved in cheer. She plays with the tennis-ball tethered headband Bujold gave her. Gabi calls it “Bob”.
Van Gyssel is a father of four.
His business-savvy oldest daughter Madison, 16, helped him raise $45,000 to bring a Syrian family to Canada by their virtually biking across Canada.
Lily, 14, is passionate about cheer, acting and architecture.
Billy, a 13-year-old filled with kindness, loves baseball and volleyball.
Natalie, his wife more than a decade, fills their home with music when she’s not the director of financial data analysis at Sun Life Financial. She plays piano and guitar.
How did they meet? At church. Natalie was on stage singing when Jeff walked in.
“I was instantly in love.”
Loneliness and isolation were only temporary. That night in the bush that began with near-tragic despair 13 years ago, was not an ending. It was a beautiful beginning.
“Ever since then, I just wanted to share that hope with other people,” he said.
“Your life can change.”
To support Jeff, click here.
