Music With A Message
Tom Jackson on Tour to Empower Youth

Calgary, AB - September 10, 2003 - The seventh annual Dreamcatcher Tour begins September 22, 2003 and will visit 8 communities across western Canada - Keeseekoose, Fishing Lake, Samson Cree, Atikameg, Comox, Boston Bar, Lillooet, and Redstone First Nations. Under the leadership of Tom Jackson, the Dreamcatcher Tour delivers a message of empowerment for youth as well as community awareness and mobilization to eliminate youth suicide. Communities were selected based on letters written to Jackson over the past year.

The tour offers interactive workshops that promote positive messages about stress, mental health, suicide prevention and coping. Reinforcing these messages is a keynote address and concert featuring Jackson whom Time Magazine recognized as one of Canada's top activists. Revenue from concert admission supports local programs and charities for youth.

David Masecar, the tour's workshop facilitator and President of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention / L'association canadienne pour la prévention du suicide) CASP/ACPS comments, "This tour ensures that our youth receive accurate information regarding mental health, suicide and a strong message of hope. The Dreamcatcher Tour, in addition to many other initiatives across Canada will hopefully lead one day to the development of a national mental health and suicide prevention strategy."

Corporate sponsors RBC Financial Group, Petro-Canada, Syncrude Canada, Samson Oil and Gas, SIGA and Clarity generously underwrite Dreamcatcher Tour 2003. Partners in the tour include Unesco, CASP, Kids Help Phone and Parent Help Line.

Over its six-year history, the Dreamcatcher Tour has stopped at 100 locations, distributed 3,000 self-help videos and was the subject of a television documentary in 2001. Jackson developed the tour in response to the 1996 suicide of Mervin Good Eagle, a 19-year-old actor from "North of 60". Each year approximately 4,000 Canadians die by suicide and the most recent statistics available report that suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth ages 15 to 24 years of age.

For more information contact
Alison Jackson
Tomali Pictures Ltd.
(403) 262-8422

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