Help send Tyler back to school!

Tyler is a hard-working, devoted dad and passionate Pilates and Yoga teacher whose work has been heavily impacted by industry shifts in his career, driven by the Covid-19 Pandemic. After two years of fierce commitment to a competitive profession that wasn’t paying the bills, he has now made the difficult choice to retrain for a more sustainable career. Tyler has taken the exciting but challenging step to return to school for a transition that will complement his already expansive skill set without abandoning his first love of teaching Pilates and Yoga. Tyler will attend the Sutherland-Chan school of massage starting August 2022 for their renowned Registered Massage Therapy (RMT) program. In just two years, he will be certified and able to add licensed bodywork and registered massage therapy to his tool kit as a wellness professional.

During this transition, his family has experienced additional and significant financial challenges, including heart surgery in August for their beloved dog Jeff and the unsalvageable loss of the family commuter car. They will need to replace the car this summer - while the cost of used vehicles is at an all-time high. And of course, these emergency expenses have occurred within a month of needing to come up with tuition.

The Sutherland Chan program is academically rigorous and includes clinical hours and practicums that will require Tyler to further reduce his already limited work schedule. This loss of income, combined with tuition and material costs, commuting and full-time child care, means they need help from their community to fund Tyler’s schooling. The tuition for the 2-year program is $23,604.00. Your generosity will support Tyler in fulfilling this dream of becoming an RMT and will aid in his recovery from the financial setbacks of the last two years.

As an independent contractor without a record of employment, Tyler is ineligible for the Second Career Ontario program, and he was not approved for this funding - which purports to support the “gig economy” workers who were hit hard by the pandemic. However, Tyler is incredibly driven and a true lifelong student - when he's not working, you can almost always find him engaged in deep learning and authentic practice of his crafts. He is most deserving of this second shot at kickstarting his career in a new direction. He will make a fantastic RMT - but starting over is simply out of reach unless we can fundraise enough to offset some of the family’s many expenses.

More about Jeff’s surgery

Jeff is a beautiful six-year-old Saluki rescue from Bahrain. He is an amazing family member and a source of deep grounding and joy for the whole family. In May, he was taken to the emergency clinic in the middle of the night for crying, pacing and having a noticeably distended abdomen. They drained more than 2 liters of fluid from around his heart, lungs and belly, and this started a slew of tests, imaging and appointments to determine the cause of his acute pericardial effusion. Now in July, the effusion has been determined idiopathic, and his cardiologist has recommended a surgical procedure called a pericardial window to allow the fluid pooling around his heart to drain into the chest cavity. The prognosis is good, and Jeff is currently doing well with close monitoring until his surgery date, August 16th. The emergency hospitalization, multiple pericardiocentesis procedures, diagnostic imaging and echocardiograms, medication and specialist appointments have already cost upwards of $5000. In addition, the surgery costs another $10,000. Jeff is insured, but due to high deductibles, the co-pay agreement, taxes and uncovered expenses, the total out-of-pocket expenses to the family will be approximately $5000 of the $15,000 total incurred. Jeff’s recovery and after-care costs are still unknown, and he will continue to need frequent ultrasounds to monitor his heart.

More about the need to replace their car

The Sutherland-Chan campus is located in North York, and until the Eglington subway line is completed, it is not easily accessible via transit. Tyler has a tight turnaround time to travel back downtown to teach evening classes and will also have to drop his daughter at daycare in the mornings before school. Access to a car is the only way he can functionally manage this extremely demanding schedule. Their 10-year-old Jeep Patriot was chugging along, but they just learned in July that the frame is rusted, and they were told there’s no point in completing the necessary work (shocks and struts) when the frame is compromised. So they are currently shopping for a cheap used car.

More about how Tyler’s work has been impacted by Covid-19

Tyler has been a popular and in-demand movement instructor in Toronto since 2017. He is a highly skilled educator certified in various modalities, including Pilates, Yoga, FRC and Kinstretch. He is trauma-informed and a sought-after workshop facilitator and teacher trainer on several YTT faculties. Before the pandemic, he was thriving in Toronto's busy Pilates and Yoga scene. He worked at more than 12 different studios and taught over 20 weekly classes. But the industry's landscape has changed drastically due to class cancellations, caps and lowered attendance; small studio competition with online corporate giants; and the endlessly rising cost of studio space across the GTA. Several studios he worked for have permanently closed. The common per-head funding model that empowered successful movement teachers to earn a livable salary has been almost universally replaced by a set rate often much lower than his pre-pandemic average. All of these factors combined equate to an income loss of more than half his pre-pandemic earnings - which has massively impacted his well-being; his family’s quality of life and driven this necessary decision.

Please help if you can. Any support is graciously and humbly appreciated.

Many thanks and much love, Tyler's family