Break The Ice 

Break The Ice (BTI) is a mental health awareness and fundraising initiative based out of St. John's, Newfoundland, established in 2020. Our partner organization, the Maddy Murphy Memorial Foundation, is an initiative started by the family and friends of Maddy Murphy, a young athlete who lost her battle with mental illness in September of 2019. BTI was formed as a Newfoundland branch of this initiative. BTI partners with local provincial sport organizations, like Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador, to promote mental health and mental wellbeing to athletes across the province. BTI aims to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health in sports and remove the false ideologies surrounding what it means to be “tough”. Funds raised by this organization go towards local mental health initiatives like our parent organization the Maddy Murphy Memorial Fund (MM81) and partners at Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador (HNL), who help us in the distribution of scholarships, dissemination of knowledge and supplementary counseling funding initiatives. BTI offers both in person and virtual events to help raise awareness and promote mental health, with the goal of starting important conversations, and breaking the ice surrounding mental health.