Athletes and artists convene for a cause

QJUMP’s Backyard Coffeehouse supported local youth 

Mike Young
Image supplied by: Supplied by QJUMP
Mike Young

Last Sunday, the QJUMP team hosted their third annual Backyard Coffeehouse to put student musicians in the spotlight.

Alex O’Reilly, The Tidman Sisters, Angie Travlos and Conor Neudorf, Natalie Dnes, Annie Brebner and Spencer Swayze, Katie Ross and Mike Young completed the show’s line-up.

A typical coffeehouse atmosphere was created with acoustic guitars and vocal performances along with baked goods sold by donation.

The crowd sang along to Angie Travlos and Conor Neudorf’s covers of pop songs by Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Vance Joy. The Tidman Sisters, made up of Emily and Katie Tidman, serenaded the crowd with their original songs “Back Into You” and “Set Me Free”.

The audience at QJUMP’s Backyard CoffeeHouse this Sunday.

Throughout the autumn afternoon, over 100 students stopped by the event to listen to the live performances and support QJUMP’s initiative. 

QJUMP, a non-profit organization focused on bringing free sports activities to Kingston youth, is made up of Kinesiology and Physical Education students and volunteer varsity athletes.  The student volunteer team consists of 15 committee members and 30 coaches.

The team offers free sports programming and lunches on Sunday afternoons. QJUMP co-directors Emma Lambert and Kathleen Hogan, both PheKin ’16, say the positive atmosphere helps support the mentoring relationship between youth and volunteers.

“The most important part to us is being able to connect with them,” Hogan said.

Three years ago, Queen’s alumni Jacob Bonafiglia and Amin Bozorgzad, both PheKin ’15, co-founded QJUMP. They say they were inspired by Bozorgzad’s encounter playing basketball with a local Kingston youth at Martha’s Table.

“We both … realized that we have such a great opportunity to be exposed to such great sport facilities and all of these great opportunities for physical activity,” Bonafiglia said.

QJUMP is conscious of the varying socioeconomic backgrounds in Kingston and those backgrounds affect access to physical activity, he added.

“There are people that are five blocks, one block north of Princess and it’s a total different world for them in terms of their opportunities for physical activity and sports,” Bonafiglia said.

Bonafiglia said the coffeehouse-style event was created to give back to the people who donated their time and money to QJUMP.

 “The idea is not primarily [to be] a fundraiser … [it’s for] raising awareness for the program and getting people together,” he said.

Among the concert attendees was captain of the Queen’s men’s varsity rugby team Lucas Rumball.

“When I was growing up, I could play whatever I wanted. My parents supported me through it and it’s helped me develop as a person [and] as a leader,” he said.

He said events that raise funds for organized sport — like those run by QJUMP — are important for kids at a financial disadvantage. 

“For someone to be robbed of that opportunity just because they don’t have the means themselves is unfair. So things like QJUMP help those kids come through and reach their full potential,” he said.

This year’s proceeds, which totalled $925, will go towards new jerseys for the senior boys and girls basketball teams at the Queen Elizabeth Colligate and Vocational Institute, a high school on Kirkpatrick St. 

The Journal spoke with Emily Tidman, a fourth-year Health Science major and one-half of the acoustic guitar duo The Tidman Sisters, at the event.

Tidman, ArtSci ’16, said she remembered the first QJUMP coffeehouse, which was two years ago, as a much smaller event. She attended the first coffeehouse two years ago.

“It was in somebody’s living room, [with] 25 people,” Tidman said. “It’s awesome to see it grow so much.”

Current co-directors of QJUMP Kathleen Hogan (left) and Emma Lambert (right), with one of the co-founders of QJUMP Jacob Bonafiglia (middle).

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