A lasting legacy: Family honours dad killed in 9/11

MONTREAL (CityNews) — Frank Doyle was an American equity trader with close ties to Canada. His wife Kimmy Chedel’s family was from Quebec, where she took their two young children, Zoe and Garrett, to live after the tragedy.

Now they spend their days honouring Frank, in what was initially a way to recognize his love for athletics.

“We’ve created this legacy that’s become pretty much my mission going forward and I just feel very positive when I’m doing anything created to Frank’s legacy and making sure he and all of his friends are never forgotten from 9/11,” explained Chedel.

Just three weeks before 9/11, Frank had competed in a triathlon in Ste Agathe – about 100 kilometres north of Montreal. It sparked a new tradition for Chedel and her family, bringing “Team Frank” to sporting events twice a year in Quebec and in New Jersey. But Team Frank quickly expanded beyond that.

“The spring of 2002 was when we first created Team Frank. I have pictures of Zoe and Garret in the summer of 2002 and you’ve got two little tiny people wearing their Frank T-shirts with the American and Canadian flags. Originally it just started as a sports team, and lets friends gather twice a year so that Zoe and Garret are surrounded by Franks friends and people who are like-minded like Frank and who love the outdoors and love athleticism and I was just hoping this group would get together and share stories about their daddy,” explained Chedel.

“Just over the years friends would take these shirts and go and compete [at] athletic events all over the world and then send us pictures or and post on Facebook and let us know where these shirts had travelled.”

And it wasn’t until Chedel and the kids travelled to Africa in 2014 and several trips after that to help children and local communities did they find a greater purpose for team frank.

“It was in the summer of 2017, we’re sitting around a campfire in South Africa and I explain we have this incredible sports team. We’ve got over 200 friends that have competed for Frank for his legacy, in his honour since he died. I said I want to take this team of friends and families and bring them to South Africa and start building schools.”

And the Canadian non-profit Team Frank Africa was born.

To date, they’ve built four schools and are continuously fundraising and looking for volunteers.

“Our goal is one school at a time and were hoping to build 30 schools,” shared Chedel.

“It’s just become so important for all of us to help others. And to take this tragedy and turn it into something positive that can make some sort of difference for as many people as possible,” explained Zoe Doyle, Frank’s daughter.

But this time of the year is always difficult for Chedel and her family.

“There’s not one year that I can say, ‘It was easier this year than last year’… We really like to hear Frank’s name read out loud to the world on the morning of 9/11. I just feel like I want to hear them say Frank Joseph Doyle every 9/11 for the rest of my life,” she said.

Chedel says having Team Frank and his legacy is healing for the family.

“Every year on the anniversary, I’d like to make it about remembering him and not so much about the tragedy of it but remembering,” said Doyle.

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