Kaya and Zach lived lives filled with love, connection, hope and laughter. Both the eldest of three, they brought these qualities to their close relationships with their younger brothers, their parents, their friends, their extended families and to all the lives they touched.

In 2016, at age 21, full of optimism for their shared future and about to complete their undergraduate degrees at the University of Guelph, Zach and Kaya both passed tragically in a freak kayaking accident on the Credit river. Our families came together in our grief and were held and surrounded by incredible love and support from each other and those close to us. Our first priority as parents was to do our best to support Kaya and Zach’s brothers in their grief while simultaneously facing our own.  We immediately understood that we had no fix, no remedy, no solutions and could not take away their pain nor bypass our own.  So, we did our best to navigate it together, day by day, sometimes hour by hour, always returning to love, hope, connection and whatever moments of laughter and joy any of us could find. By instinctually surrounding each other with unconditional love we came to trust in the ability to heal grief from within. 

We came to discover, and are still reminded often, that there is no “correct” way to grieve and no fast-track. Grief is messy. Grief is hard. We learned that resources that may be incredibly helpful to one person are not at all helpful to another, and that everyone’s experience of loss is as unique as their own relationship with the person who has passed. Slowly, as we grieved individually and together, we sought welcoming spaces for healthy expressions for our grief and supported each other’s own unique paths toward learning how to carry it. We came to discover that the commonality for navigating our individual paths through our grief was that same constellation of traits that Zach and Kaya embodied in their lives: Love, Hope, Connection and Laughter. Full circle. These are the elements that create the conditions for resilience to grow.

We discovered that our stories about how we got here, how things came to be this way, can lead to the bigger question of why. When that question is unanswerable, in that space beyond reason and logic – that is when our stories matter most. It is those stories, arising from deep within our brains, our bodies, our souls, that either haunt us or guide us. In discovering our stories for ourselves, in sharing them, not for the impact they will have to educate, instruct or guide another, but rather for the purpose of bringing them into the light of day so that we can see for ourselves what is within us, allows us to sift through our assumptions about the world and about ourselves. Then we can make our own choices about how we want to live our lives.

One year after the accident, to honour Zach and Kaya by sharing their message of Love, Hope and Connection we created a scholarship for young people to recognize resilience found through navigating their own way through grief from loss of someone they love. It was our hope that by providing recognition and a platform to share and learn from their stories of resilience, there would be a ripple effect of healing through the community.

The Biehn family were immediately supportive of the idea and organized a golf tournament to gather friends, community, raise funds and celebrate Zach and Kaya. This was the greatest gift, as it added that final element that was so essential in Zach and Kaya’s lives: Laughter.

Since then, friends, family, community members, donors, sponsors, applicants and recipients have helped to grow this initiative into a registered Canadian Charity that to date has awarded over $63,000 in post-secondary scholarships to resilient youth across Canada. Year over year, our applicant base has grown, showing that youth are indeed able to recognize their own resilience, and are willing to share their stories to potentially help others who are struggling with their own grief. Our message is being heard; our hearts are full.

Our organization remains completely volunteer-run and supported by our local community. Our exponential growth has challenged us to make some difficult choices around the direction for the Foundation in years to come. We feel that recognition and support by one’s local community has the greatest impact on a personal level, and therefore will be changing the geographical criteria to Halton Hills residents only beginning in 2025. We have learned much, we treasure all the amazing and genuine contacts and sharing with so many youth across the country, and now it is time for us to come home.

Together, we Choose 2 Be Resilient.

To read a recent article in the media about our work, click here