For more than three decades, Shawn Bennett has dedicated his life to serving others, as a firefighter, soldier, chaplain, mentor, volunteer and mental health advocate.
A graduate of NC’s General Arts and Science program in 1995, Bennett has built a career defined by public service, resilience and a commitment to helping others. This year, that work was recognized with one of Ontario’s highest civilian honours: the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship.
Bennett receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship at the investiture ceremony that took place on April 14 at the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite at Queen’s Park in Toronto.
This medal recognizes individuals whose leadership and exceptional volunteer service have left a lasting impact on their communities and helped build a stronger Ontario and Canada. Bennett was selected as one of only ten recipients across Ontario.
Throughout his firefighting and military career, Bennett was repeatedly exposed to traumatic emergencies, fatal accidents and loss, experiences that eventually led to a diagnosis of complex PTSD.
Rather than retreat from that struggle, Bennett transformed it into purpose, dedicating his life to supporting people through adversity and strengthening suffering communities around him.
Receiving provincial recognition became an especially monumental moment because of his journey.
“I felt very humbled and honoured,” Bennett said. “PTSD makes you catastrophize everything. You feel like you constantly prove yourself. Being among the Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship recipients was proof that I did something worthwhile.”
Held at Queen’s Park at the Lieutenant Governor’s residence, the ceremony brought together community leaders and changemakers from across the province, a moment Bennett still describes as surreal and humbling.
“I know I earned my way there, but just to be included, and accepted for who I am, felt very special,” he said.
A life built around service
Bennett’s dedication to service began in 1985 when he joined the Lincoln and Welland Regiment as a reservist with the Canadian Armed Forces. Over the next 26 years, he served with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment as an infantry sergeant, training allied troops internationally, teaching on military courses and participating in exercises across Canada and abroad.
Bennett served for 26 years with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment as an infantry sergeant, representing Canada internationally through military training, ceremonies and performances across Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.
His military experiences took him from the mountains of Jamaica to ceremonies in Europe, where he represented Canada internationally as Drum Major of the Regimental Band for eight years.
Among his many international experiences, Bennett led performances at Beat the Retreat ceremonies in front of Major General Sir Isaac Brock’s birthplace in Guernsey, laid wreaths at military cenotaphs in England, became the first Canadian to fire the Noon Gun at Castle Cornet in Guernsey, and performed at Chelsea Barracks in London for veterans.
At the same time, Bennett was building a second career in public safety.
In 1991, he joined the St. Catharines Fire Department, beginning what would become a 35-year career as a professional firefighter.
Throughout those decades, Bennett became known not only for responding to emergencies, but also for mentoring firefighters, supporting colleagues in crisis, helping organize firefighter funerals and serving as a protocol officer for departments across Niagara. He was nominated for the Medal of Bravery in 2006 and later received both provincial and federal exemplary service medals recognizing decades of distinguished service.
Turning trauma into advocacy: The Valhalla Project Niagara
After decades on the front lines of emergency response, the emotional impact of Bennett’s work began to take a toll, and he was ultimately diagnosed with complex PTSD.
At a time when PTSD was still stigmatized within emergency services, Bennett became one of the first firefighters in the region to openly take leave due to operational trauma.
“One thing people don’t realize is you don’t forget those tragic calls,” he said. “You carry them with you forever.”
This experience pushed him toward a new mission of helping others feel less alone in their own similar struggles.
“I don’t want people to go through all those years of not understanding what was wrong with them,” he said.
In 2019, Bennett co-founded the Valhalla Project Niagara alongside military veteran and retired Peel police officer Graham Bettes. The Niagara-based charity provides free residential programming for veterans, first responders and others living with operational stress trauma and injuries. The program focuses heavily on peer support, connection and community, bringing together participants from across Canada and beyond.
Many participants in the program arrive carrying intense shame, isolation and emotional exhaustion.
“Once they realize they’re in a room with people from all these different walks of life that all have the exact same symptoms, exact same experiences, they realize there’s no shame in what they’re going through,” he said.
A major part of the program’s impact comes from vulnerability and peer connection, with participants seeing others, including Bennett, openly discuss their own struggles with PTSD and operational trauma.
Bennett with his service dog, Siren, who has played an important role in supporting his journey with PTSD and operational trauma.
“I’m a big guy, tattooed, goatee, and I have tears coming down my face when I talk about certain things,” Bennett said. “I try to show them that when you lose the shame, you can start healing.”
A central part of Bennett’s philosophy is the Latin phrase Nunquam Unis, meaning “never alone,” a phrase tattooed on his body that has become deeply connected to the organization’s peer-support model.
“None of us with PTSD are ever truly alone,” he said.
Service dogs and literacy programming
One of the earliest initiatives launched through the Valhalla Project Niagara involved providing professionally trained service dogs to veterans and first responders living with PTSD.
Working alongside his wife, Melodi, a master dog trainer, Bennett helped purchase and train seven service dogs for participants at no cost.
The dogs play an important role in helping participants manage anxiety and emotional regulation, while Bennett’s own service dog, Siren, remains an important part of his daily life.
Together, Bennett and his wife also operated a nine-year literacy program using service dogs to help children and new Canadians improve reading skills in schools across Niagara.
Supporting troops overseas
Over the years, Bennett has co-led numerous community and military support initiatives focused on improving morale, connection and support for Canadian Armed Forces members serving overseas.
He helped establish a “Support the Troops” initiative that delivered more than 200 care packages across seven deployments while also coordinating the delivery of school supplies to a girls’ school in Afghanistan.
The program continues today through annual holiday outreach efforts, including sending more than 300 Christmas cards to deployed troops each year.
Community advocacy and volunteer work
Bennett’s commitment to community care has also extended into local outreach, family support and mental health advocacy throughout Niagara.
Bennett helped bring the City of St. Catharines’ first-ever public labyrinth to Fairview Park. The labyrinth, sometimes referred to as a healing garden, is a walking path designed for meditation, mindfulness and personal reflection, helping reduce stress, encourage gentle exercise and support individuals living with mental health conditions and PTSD.
He and his wife helped provide winter clothing, boots and other essentials for newcomer families and students, ensuring every child at Lincoln Centennial School in St. Catharines received a toque, mittens and scarf, while also launching a boot program for children in need.
Bennett has volunteered with organizations including the Kidney Foundation, Brain Injury Community Re-entry, Sport by Ability Niagara, the Humane Society, the Royal Canadian Legion and Walk for Guide Dogs.
He also spent three years lobbying to establish a public labyrinth at Fairview Park in St. Catharines to support mental health and wellness for residents.
Throughout his advocacy work, Bennett has delivered educational talks to service clubs, first responder organizations, detention centres and community groups, helping reduce stigma surrounding PTSD, suicide and operational stress injuries.
Continuing his mission
Now an ordained Fire Chaplain and chaplain trainer in Ontario, Bennett supports veterans, first responders and families through grief, trauma and crisis. His work includes suicide intervention, grief counselling, supporting families of deployed troops, officiating funerals and weddings, and mentoring fellow chaplains.
Even with the provincial recognition and decades of accomplishments behind him, Bennett says his work is far from finished. At 59 years old, he still has many goals ahead, including continuing advocacy work, training future chaplains and expanding mental health education initiatives.
Through The Valhalla Project Niagara, he remains committed to expanding peer support networks and helping veterans and first responders feel less isolated in their struggles.
“I plan on making it to 100,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve still got a lot of things I want to do.”
Awards, honours and recognition
Throughout his decades of military service, firefighting, volunteerism and community advocacy, Bennett has received numerous honours recognizing his contributions to Niagara and beyond.
Awards and recognitions include:
- Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship
- Canadian Service Medal with Bar
- Regional Chair’s Award
- Queen’s Jubilee Medal
- 20-Year Provincial Exemplary Firefighter Service Medal with Three Bars
- 25-Year Federal Exemplary Service Medal with Two Bars
- Battle Buddy Award for Supporting Veterans
- Scout Youth Award
- Certificate of Appreciation from Rotary International
- Certificate of Appreciation from the Army Cadet League
- Two St. Catharines Volunteer Awards
- Heart and Stroke Lifesaver Award
- Quilt of Valour
Learn more
To learn more about Shawn Bennett and The Valhalla Project Niagara:
- The Valhalla Project Niagara
- Government of Ontario: Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship 2024 and 2025 Recipients
- Catharines Standard: Valhalla Project Niagara needs help in mission to aid veterans and first responders with PTSD
- Niagara this Week: ‘An injury to the brain, healed through the heart’: Valhalla Project helps first responders heal their mental health
- Niagara this Week: Pulling the sadness away: St. Catharines labyrinth a coping tool for first responders
- Niagara Now: ‘Being here I don’t feel alone anymore’: Valhalla Projects Learn to Live program helps veterans, first responders through PTSD
- Catharines Standard: Valhalla Project aims to pull people back from their PTSD
- Niagara this Week: Valhalla Project Niagara offers proactive solution to first-responder PTSD
- CHCH: Exploring the healing paths of a labyrinth
- CityNews: Meet the service dogs who will help vets and first responders
