Her smile is infectious: you can’t help but smile back.

As The Anchor gets to know Heather Lynch—her smile morphs seamlessly into a cheer as I confirm whether she is a proud New Westie. (Spoilers: she is.)

“We say go Hyacks! That’s our motto! I am so proud to be a New Westie, born and raised … I was able to purchase the home that I grew up in, and it’s been 50 years, incredible,” she exclaims with joy.

Lynch has been working for Options Community Services—a not-for-profit organization—for 30 years, and she says she feels fortunate to be able to support youth experiencing a variety of challenges.

“To tell you the truth, I wanted to be a police officer … [I thought it would be] helpful if I started working with people. I did work at Woodlands Hospital before it closed down; I did that work because my parents worked there, they were both nurses.”

Lynch says her parents thought she wanted to be a nurse, but she says that was far from what she wanted to pursue. She ended up applying to Options and working in a group home. Lynch has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Simon Fraser University, and a master’s in leadership from Royal Roads University.

During a graveyard shift at the group home, Lynch says she was touched by a book she’d been reading—and it affirmed for her that what she’d been doing with the not-for-profit was what she wanted to do. “It was called The Red Book, and I bawled. All the stories of why young people landed in our emergency receiving home—and oh my goodness, my heart.”

“Kindness is underrated”

Lynch says she was fortunate to grow up and be part of a loving family and community—and all she wanted to do was give that tenfold. A common thread during our discussion is how Lynch has used kind and simple gestures to get those points across. At one point she takes a moment to underscore three simple words: “kindness is underrated,” flashing her warm, dazzling smile as she adds that kindness is also free.

“I’d bake [the kids] triple layer cake, I’d make them a breakfast on Sunday; we always had breakfast on the weekends. I just wanted them to feel like it was home and that they were comfortable, because they were coming from very traumatic experiences,” says Lynch.

Over the years, Lynch says she’s learned so many lessons from the youngsters—and adults—she’s been blessed to have the opportunity to work with. She credits a lot of that to New West, because she feels as though the community celebrates with her when they experience wins.

Lynch, who is of Jamaican descent, admits sometimes there have been challenges.

“Growing up, I didn’t really know that I was different because fortunately, I was able to stay in the same place. My friends I had, my neighbours, it was all just part of growing up.”

It was when Lynch says she began attending Kindergarten she began to notice something was off.

“I remember this game called, ‘Boys Chase the Girls,’ and the boys were going after the girls, the girls would run. Nobody was chasing me, but I just ran anyways because I just wanted to be part of the group. I kept running until the accepted me.”

Sometimes, Lynch would walk down the street, and someone would make remarks about her skin being a different colour.

“This young person would say, ‘mommy, she’s Black! Mommy, she’s Black!’ I just remember trying to ignore it.”

Whether it was running with the other kids—many of whom she’s still friends with today—or dealing with other moments similar to the one in which she’d been walking down the street, in another example of championing simplicity, Lynch said all she had to do—based on her own lived experience—was change her mindset and her narrative, too.

“I say, ‘I do belong here. I do have loved ones around me, and I feel accepted.’”

It runs in the family

And for those who know Lynch, her leadership, love, and giving nature shouldn’t be all that surprising, as Lynch has doted on some of her family members as role models: her cousin Michael Tulloch was the first black Supreme Court Judge of Canada and is currently serving as the first Black chief justice of Ontario.

During our chat, Lynch constantly credits her parents and other members from her family for encouraging her to be the best version of herself, so that she can continue to help others. These are also tenets she says she’s passed onto her daughter, who attends school at New West Secondary.

As an extension of her family, Lynch says the incredible connections through her church helped her get through many a tough time. As for one of her favourite individual mentors? A local police officer who watched her grow up.

“Cst. Buchanan would always check in with me. He saw me in elementary school and in high school; he’d check on me in college,” explains Lynch, who also gives a shout out to Pathfinders and competitive marching, which allowed her to build discipline and were additional ways that shaped her growth and giving over the years.

“It’s been an incredible journey, and all of it has been so instrumental in my rearing through life.”