CEO Blog

I sent this letter to the Spark team, to take stock of, and say thank you for what they’ve done over the last 21 months. Dear team, With the year coming to an end, and with our 10-year anniversary approaching, I’ve been reflecting on the last 21 months. If there’s one thing...

Failure is the best teacher. I’m not against “focusing on the positive.” But I am convinced that having a safe space to talk about “the negative” is actually an important part of being a happy and healthy community. So I’m beginning a series of reflections on how I’ve failed, learned...

I’m not going to shock anyone with this statement, but growing up is hard. It’s painful at times. It involves a lot of mistakes and a lot of unexpected twists. I’m a different person than I was six years ago. And though our core mission has stayed the same, Spark...

My son Cooper is five years old. He is a beautiful, amazing, hilarious bundle of joy. Everything changed for me the moment he was born. There’s nothing else like holding your child for the first time. Nothing else like the feeling that he needed his mom and me more than...

I have a confession to make. I grew up in Kapuskasing (that’s not the confession part, hold on), 850 km northwest of Ottawa, population 8000. The confession is that I spent my whole childhood wishing, hoping, praying that I could leave. I did not appreciate growing up in a small...

We all experienced pain as kids. And we were never the same. In a good way. I didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. I initially became a respite worker because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids who were dealt a tough hand. My education and...

Like my father and his father before him, I've battled anxiety all my life. I learned early how important it is to talk about it. It's taken some time, but I'm finally ready to share my story. Bradley Bezan Home and Second Home I grew up in Kapuskasing, Ontario. Industry town. Remote. A...