A groundswell of support from the community, including from current and former students and their families, has emerged to help a youth support worker who has touched the lives of many and has fallen on tough times.
In late August, Janice Rodger fell on a patch of barnacles while vacationing on Cortes Island with family. Everything spiralled downwards from there.
When she fell, Rodger cut a tendon in her left foot that caused her to lose movement and feeling in her toes. She was on crutches for weeks afterwards and still hasn’t regained complete movement in her foot, according to Rodger.
Soon after, Rodger, who divides her time as a youth worker at Mountainside Secondary in North Vancouver and a group home for at-risk youth in the Downtown Eastside, was forced to vacate the top floor of her Coquitlam home for fumigation.
Because of her lack of mobility at the time, Rodger couldn’t remove all the house’s belongings from the top floor so she opted to store some on her upstairs sundeck during the fumigation process.
Then, last month, she received the devastating news that her house was on fire, along with her belongings, and that the fire had spread to the roof, sundeck and adjacent duplex.
Fire and water damage from the blaze was extensive, and with her home unlivable for the next eight months and many possessions gone, Rodger has temporarily moved back in with her parents in North Vancouver.
“I’m still pretty emotional,” says Rodger. “It just seems my life…” she trails off, overcome with feeling. And then: “It’s not getting better.”
A friend started a GoFundMe campaign to help Rodger replace household items and afford rent for temporary accommodations. The online fundraiser brought in $6,000 in a single day.
“I have thanked every single person who has donated – and some people I don’t know who they are,” she says. “What’s really come out of this is that, I don’t say it enough, but you all mean so much to me.”
From the notes of support and monetary donations, it’s clear that Rodger has meant a lot to many students, colleagues, young people and their families over the years.
Sophie Sluis, who graduated from Mountainside in 2018, recalls how Rodger helped her when she first entered the alternative education school in North Vancouver.
“She has a way of making new people feel super welcome and really comfortable – it can be really scary going to a brand new high school,” says Sluis. “She did so much more than her job. She went above and beyond every day.”
Sluis, who keeps in contact with Rodger, says she was disheartened to learn about her former youth support worker’s current situation.
As soon as she found out, she immediately contributed what she could, she says.
“I felt so awful because she’s literally the last person to deserve something like this. I donated money and I texted all my friends who we went to Mountainside together with,” says Sluis.
Funds raised will go towards replacing Rodger’s housing supplies, kitchen appliances, furniture and clothing, as well as transportation and car repairs after, as fate would have it, her car twice broke down shortly after the fire.
The groundswell of support for Rodger is a testament to how much of an impact she’s had on the lives of many, says Sluis, adding that now people want to return the favour.
“I know for me personally, I don’t know what I would have done without her. At Mountainside, she was a huge reason for my success there,” she says.
