Ethan’s legacy lives on

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/10/2021 (1434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ethan Boyer’s love of animals lives on.

On Oct. 25, 2019, Ethan was killed in a collision on the south perimeter near Brady Road. He was 19.

Throughout October, his parents Sue Zuk-Boyer and Dana Boyer, and brother Reid Boyer, are spearheading a month-long fundraising campaign called Pain with Purpose in honour of their son’s memory, having teamed up with two southeast Winnipeg Pet Valu locations — in St. Boniface at 27 Marion St. and in Southdale at 35 Lakewood Blvd. The donation site in the stores is signposted Tin for the Critter Bin.

Until Oct. 31, community members are invited to make donations of cat and food at these two locations to contribute to the cause. To kickstart things on Oct. 1, Ethan’s family donated $1,200 worth of food to K9 Advocates Manitoba — a non-profit organization dedicated to helping rural First Nations communities in the province manage the overpopulation of stray dogs. Throughout the month, the family will be collecting and dropping off food to other local pet rescues.

The majority of the $1,200, Zuk-Boyer said, was donated thanks to the fundraising efforts of Const. Shaylin Fenton, a former member of Headingley RCMP Traffic Services who the first police officer on-scene at the collision.

“Unfortunately, she’s no longer in the province, as she’s transferred to Alberta since then, but we keep her regularly updated,” said Zuk-Boyer, who was a member of the Winnipeg Police Service for 25 years.

She’s also grateful for the support of Tracey Johnson, the owner/operator of the St. Boniface and Southdale Pet Valu locations, who suggested holding the donation drive in her stores.

The RCMP detachment in Headingley also has a donation box, as does Quarry Pets in Stonewall, and Fluffy’s Pet Grocery in Teulon, Zuk-Boyer said.

“Ethan loved animals more than he loved people,” Zuk-Boyer said, fondly remembering her son as a gentle giant with a heart of gold. “He was a big boy — he was over six feet tall, and he loved playing hockey. He played it a lot.”

In fact, the teen — a defenceman whose hockey teams included the Interlake Lightning and the Arborg Ice Dawgs between 2014 and 2019 — was in his second year at the University of Manitoba and studying computer science, which he excelled at.  

“We’ve always had animals, whether it’s cats or dogs,” Zuk-Boyer said. “Ethan was always the one picking up the animals and carrying them around. He would have been a vet, but I think he’d have ended up wanting to take the animals home.”

Zuk-Boyer noted the donation drive has, in some ways, been a cathartic way of helping her family keep Ethan’s memory alive, while supporting different animal shelters, which is something he would have loved because it was so ingrained in his nature to want to help animals.  

“People can see what a devastating loss this has been, and how terrible it’s been for is, so if we can turn something so bad into a little bit of happiness, then it’s important for us to do this. It’s hard, but ultimately it is possible to turn pain into purpose,” Zuk-Boyer said.

In August 2020, the province announced that a new service road between Waverley Street and Brady Road, intended to improve safety and traffic flow in the area, was being named Ethan Boyer Way.

Visit the Pet Valu Marion or Pet Valu Southdale pages on Facebook for more information. The names of anyone donating will be entered to win a prize package that will be drawn at the end of the month.