Tears roll down Zac McHugh’s cheeks as he speaks of the mentor who helped turn his life around when he was younger.
“I saw what I wanted to be,” said McHugh, 33, wiping tears as he recalled the memory last week.
The man who took McHugh under his wing and gave him guidance and confidence was his weightlifting coach.
He said he was inspired by “who he was as a man, and the respect he gained when he came into the room, and the confidence in the things he was teaching us.”
McHugh, now married and successful in his own right, wants to offer mentorship to other men in Squamish who may not be able to afford personal coaches and private counselling or who are deterred by the stigma of getting help.
“Everybody deserves it, no matter where they are at,” he said.
“There are so many men who are in that survival mode or who are going through whatever they are going through because of their circumstance, or their family, or there’s mental illness in their family, or addiction, and so they are going through this world with half a set of tools.”
McHugh launched a pilot program for men on Oct. 28 within Rebel Fitness Squamish.
The goal is to eventually have a brick and mortar one-stop-shop for men to access resources, guidance, coaching and even cooking lessons, he said.
“I want to create a mentorship program where we are not only exposing men to physical resources, but also exposing them to community resources,” he said.
“This is a welcoming space for you to come and get healthy.”
McHugh moved to Squamish from California three years ago, and while he was waiting for his Canadian work permit, he started volunteering at the Squamish Helping Hands Society. Eighteen months ago, he was hired as a frontline support worker for the society.
He is also an Olympic weight-lifting coach and fitness instructor.
“Working down there, I was just trying to figure out how I could use my gifts in order to help the people who are going through the similar things that I did,” he said.
McHugh said he grew up in a dysfunctional family. Both parents married three times each. He said there was physical and sexual abuse in their lives.
“Through those experiences… it causes us to take on these identities or adopt our own behaviour patterns,” he said. “You have all these insecurities and you go through this world with a poor relationship with yourself.”
For a time, McHugh fell into drug addiction and an unhealthy lifestyle.
“It almost becomes this groundhogs day where you’re wanting to get clean and wanting to get better like, ‘This is going to be the week we are going to get better, this is the week we’re going to get clean,’ and then all of a sudden, six months of your life goes by and you’re still in that groundhogs day because of the fears or the sickness or not even knowing that you are worth more than what you see,” he said.
McHugh wants to offer a way out of the spiral for men of all backgrounds.
Until he can open up a dedicated centre, he is working on increasing the number of men involved in the pilot program. He later plans to approach investors and other possible funders with proof the program works.
“If the work that I am doing, the theories are correct and we are seeing change in these people, I feel people will be more apt to throw money at you.”
The pilot program is held Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Rebel Fitness. To get involved in the program or find out more, contact McHugh at [email protected].
