Terry Fox run to honour firefighter Mike Vriens

Niagara-on-the-Lake lost a dedicated, beloved and highly-respected volunteer firefighter in 2019 to a type of cancer that is listed on the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board as an occupational disease for firefighters.

Mike Vriens had been committed to being firefighter for more than 30 years, reaching the rank of captain with Station 1, the Old Town department.

For almost seven years, he battled glioblastoma multiforme, a cancer that affects the brain.

Vriens was born and raised in Niagara-on-the-Lake, says his sister Corinne Unruh, and was considered someone who made a huge impact on the town, both as a firefighter and a life-long member of the community.

He was a student at St. Vincent de Paul School in the Old Town, St. Michael in Virgil and then Niagara District Secondary School.

“He loved this town, and worked not only to support it but to help others. Once you’ve grown up here, it’s so in your blood.”

Vriens was a member of town staff for 35 years in the roads department, and between his outdoor work, which included planting trees, and as a volunteer firefighter, “he knew a lot of people, and had a lot of friends,” says Unruh.

He also belonged to one of the local morning coffee groups that met at the community centre.

Once he couldn’t drive, “I would get him there, or somebody from the group would pick him up,” she says.

Some of the group were firefighters, and those meetings with friends meant a lot him, she says.

He continues to be mourned by many who knew him.

Every year since he passed away, on July 27,  a group of people have gathered at his gravesite to tell stories and remember him, she says. Some may be friends from work, others firefighters or a friend or neighbour, and it’s not always the same people. Some years the group is larger than others, depending on who is able to get there, and when they leave his gravesite they head to the Sandtrap Pub and Grill afterwards, she adds.

“He had so many friends, knew so many people, and he was always there to help if someone needed something.”

“When I visit the gravesite, every so often I see a little memorial left behind. I can sometimes tell who has been there because of what they’d left.”

She says she often runs into people who will stop to chat about something that is happening in town. “They will say, ‘if Michael was here, he would know about it.’ He would always know what was going on. He not only talked to everybody, he was really interested in what they would have to say.”

He was also involved in many community activities, including being a regular participant in the Terry Fox Run.

Retired principal Sharon Burns, now a reporter for The Local, was also a volunteer firefighter, and considered Vriens a friend. When she takes part in the Terry Fox run, she does it for him, she says.

She too had a horrendous battle with cancer — stage 4 breast cancer, and a double mastectomy. “It was a hell of a year,” she says, but while she went through treatment, he was on the phone with her regularly, and made a huge difference in her life.

He would talk to her about what he was going through and encouraged her to share what was happening to her. “It was the best thing for my mental health,” she says. “Mike was awesome. I miss him dearly.”

Certain types of cancer can be considered an occupational cancer, Burns.

Vriens, she says, “was very mindful of community events, and he had walked in the Terry Fox runs for as long as I had known him.”

Fire Chief Jay Playto says Vriens remained a member of the NOTL Fire Department until his death. His cancer was deemed a presumptive occupational-related illness, he explained, and Vrien’s death was considered a line-of-duty death in the fire service. His name was submitted and is inscribed on the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Ottawa.

Last April 28, when the town held its annual National Day of Mourning service at the monument in Virgil, Plato organized a second service to follow it, with small contingent of fire-fighting staff, volunteers and community members attending the ceremony, to honour workers “who have died or suffered physical or mental injury or illness due to workplace accidents, hazards, or harassment.”

He especially honoured Vriens, saying “we remember and honour the life of former town employee and former town firefighter, lead hand of roads and Fire Captain Mike Vriens. Mike lost his life to presumptive occupational cancer, due to firefighting, in 2020.”

While the Terry Fox Run honours Vriens this year, last year it paid tribute to John vander Zalm, also a pillar in the community. His sons told The Local he had fought a cancer diagnosis for seven years, and had walked the Terry Fox fundraising event for every one of those seven years — his last one with a cane.

Burns recalls one year sitting on a bench in Simcoe Park after she, Vriens and vander Zalm had walked the route, one on each side of her. “Mike was happy to be there in that moment, happy to be part of it, because the Terry Fox Run was fighting for a cure, fighting to raise money for a cure, and he was right in the middle of it.”

Vriens is remembered as someone who showed courage, when he was fighting fires, and when he was fighting cancer.

He was much-loved by many — family, friends, firefighters and others who were touched by his life.

“I still hear from people who were very fond of him,” his sister Unruh says, “people who remember him fondly.”