Editor's Note: This story was previously posted on StratfordToday.ca.
Will Mason is a busy guy with a busy job. His title, assistant operations manager for McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, shows that he holds a lot of responsibility and the five locations he helps oversee show that as well.
He’s been working with the popular restaurant chain for a while now and won’t turn 24 until December. Watch him work and you’ll see a polite, hard-working and sociable young man who knows where he is and how he got there.
And just 10 years ago, the picture was very different.
“I was 15 at the beginning of my journey, and I was 16 when I officially left home,” Mason said. “There were family challenges there, and I felt at that moment that it was better for me to leave and go on my own way – at that time, I felt that’s what needed to happen.”
Having to make that choice was difficult for Mason and something he called heartbreaking and scary. Like many kids who find themselves without a place to call home at that moment, he said the hardest part was the unknown. But unlike so many kids in similar situations, Will Mason had a plan in place to help take him where he wanted to go.
He credits the staff at Northwestern Secondary School and at Shelterlink for helping him be able to stick with his plan, even as some people around him didn’t know his whole story.
“The guidance counselors at Northwestern and my principal, Martin (Ritsma) were very helpful, and they saw how challenging and emotional a time it was for me,” Mason said. “And Ann (Vaters) at Shelterlink, she helped make it a little less scary for me. I had colleagues here at McDonalds who helped me find a place to stay, and Kerry Prober (the McDonald’s franchise owner in Stratford) … I remember sitting in the office at Ontario Street with her and she told me that they were here to support me with whatever I needed.”
Vaters, the community outreach worker for Shelterlink, is the first point of contact for the youth that come through the doors. She has seen kids at low moments and she said that bringing someone into a shelter is usually a last resort and does a lot of her work in schools and she also has training in conflict resolution and family mediation – she’s the one that has to try and help put a puzzle back together that is sometimes still missing a lot of pieces.
“That’s the toughest part of the job, being the impartial person to come in and try to reunite a family,” she said. “It’s tough because there’s always blame, and both parties have to be willing to have the support in place to be successful.”
When the topic of Will Mason comes up, Vaters gets a little teary.
“Will was a lovely boy when I first met him, and he was pleasant despite his circumstances,” she said. “And when Will walked through the doors here, he had a plan. That told me right then that one day, this boy was going to be successful. Everyone who comes to Shelterlink has a story of how they got there, and Will … just needed a place to live so he could do the things that he needed to do.”
The thing at the top of that list was finishing school. Vaters was so convinced that Mason was going to succeed that she says her mental image of him was becoming Prime Minister of Canada – after all, what tie-wearing high school student doesn’t want that for themselves? He was self-sufficient and driven, indicating to Vaters that he was giving himself the best chance to be okay.
That wasn’t the only impression Mason made. Ritsma remembers the tie-wearing kid as well who came up and introduced himself to the principal on the first day of school and Mason – a seventh grader at the time – made what Ritsma calls an unusual request of him.
“I think it was in the front hallway of the school when Will approached me and told me that he’d like to meet everybody coming off the buses when they arrive in the morning,” he said. “He said to me, ‘I’m new to the school and it’s a big school with over 1,000 people here, so I want to meet everybody coming off the bus and say welcome.’. About five years ago, I introduced myself to someone who I’d met back in high school and he told me that when I was in Grade 13 and he was just in Grade 9, I shook his hand and welcomed him to Northwestern. Will didn’t know that when we met, but I knew he was a unique individual when I saw him do that.”
As their relationship grew, Ritsma said he began to understand what Mason’s home life was like. There were never any direct conversations about it, only the subtlety of body language in certain situations that told the hidden truth.
“I think I knew the best part of his day was behind him when school would finish,” Ritsma said. “I used to give him rides home, and it was on those rides that I could feel his energy change just slightly. I know he was a caregiver to one of his siblings, and that weighed on him as well. He never told me directly that he needed out, and he quietly found the resources to get the help he needed.”
To look at Mason now, people see a caring and compassionate person who willingly engages in conversation with anyone. He’s also one to help out whenever and however he can in big and small ways: messages of support for the community on the restaurant’s outdoor signs, or letting Ritsma know that he’ll help out with some food for Shelterlink meetings.
“Going through this myself, it reminds me that we have to understand that everyone has their own things going on and nobody actually knows how deep they go even if they open up to you,” Mason said. “This has humbled me and also reminded me that everyone has something going on and you need empathy to understand. That’s where my desire to engage with people comes from.”
He’s not a bragger but Mason wants people to look at him as an example, proving that it is possible to make decisions that break your heart and still find a way to move forward. Vaters said that while this wasn’t the worst case she’s ever seen, it was still a situation that no 15-year-old should ever find themselves in. She holds Mason up to inspire those who are in a worse situation, showing them what is possible.
“I am extremely proud of how Will took control of his situation and got the help he knew he needed,” she said. “He was self-actualized enough to know he had to leave where he was before things got worse, but he has taken his experiences and learned how to use them to help others with his actions.”
Given the chance to go back to the night he decided it was time to leave home and tell his younger self one thing, Mason knew his answer right away.
“Better days are to come, and don’t lose who you are,” he said. “Keep true to yourself, which I did throughout my experience. I’m here today because I didn’t lose myself.”
Shelterlink Youth Services supports youth experiencing homelessness, or are at risk of homelessness, through prevention, advocacy, shelter and community connection services.
