Irina Foundation

The Irina Foundation is a charitable initiative created by Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov that gives their private grief a public purpose. Conceived as a joint project and named for Ilya’s mother, it is intended to raise money and awareness for organizations supporting people with depression and other mental illnesses that can lead to suicide. Its founding idea connects hockey, the sport through which the two men became rivals and partners, with mental-health support beyond the rink.

Origin and Initial Plan

The idea first took shape during a quiet moment together at Shane’s cottage. As Shane traced the chain around Ilya’s neck, he asked his partner for his mother’s name. Ilya answered that she was Irina, a name he had not said for so long that it felt strange to speak. Shane’s response was not a finished organizational blueprint but a proposal: they could start a charity and establish a hockey school, with summer camps in Ottawa and Montreal.

The first version linked the camps to giving their proceeds away. When Ilya asked whether the money would be donated, Shane agreed and suggested mental-health organizations, including suicide-prevention work. The exchange established two elements that remained central to the later public description: the project would be built together, and its charitable purpose would address mental illness and suicide. The evidence presents the camps as an idea for how the charity might work, not as a program already operating.

Name and Mission

The foundation takes its name from Irina, whose experience gives the cause its personal urgency. At the public launch, Ilya explained that his mother had battled depression for many years without support or medical treatment. She died when he was twelve. He described the foundation as being for her and as a way to help people like her, so that they would not have to fight alone.

The mission stated publicly reaches beyond a memorial to one person. Shane’s prepared remarks described the foundation as raising money and awareness for organizations that provide support, counseling, and assistance to people suffering from depression and other mental illnesses that can lead to suicide. That formulation makes both awareness and practical help part of its purpose. The stated aim is to strengthen access to support for people facing illnesses that, in Irina’s case, had gone untreated and unsupported; the account does not specify which organizations would receive funding or how services would be delivered.

Public Launch

The project became a reality after Ilya signed with Ottawa. Shane told the audience that the two men had begun discussing a charity together around that time, and that the dream had now become the Irina Foundation. He presented the announcement in English and then translated it into French, carrying the explanation to both language communities at the event.

Ilya then spoke in English, noting that this part was not in his prepared remarks. His decision to explain his mother’s history made the foundation’s name and purpose legible as more than a formal tribute: he disclosed the long absence of support and treatment, her death during his childhood, and the reason he wanted the organization to exist. Shane reached for Ilya’s forearm as he spoke. After Ilya finished, the crowded room fell silent; Shane thanked him. The public announcement thus joined an institutional statement of purpose to an unusually personal account of the loss behind it.

Significance and Scope

The foundation transforms a private conversation into a shared undertaking. Its original hockey-school proposal ties the project to the partners’ professional world and imagines camps in both Ottawa and Montreal; its announced mission places the intended benefit with people affected by depression and related mental illnesses. The shift from a suggested fundraising vehicle to a clearly articulated mental-health purpose broadens the project without erasing its beginnings in hockey.

Its meaning also rests on the difference between remembering Irina and addressing the conditions Ilya described: years of depression without help, support, or medical care. The foundation is presented as a response to that isolation, with a goal of helping others avoid facing illness alone. The account establishes its purpose and public launch, but does not detail its governance, fundraising results, or subsequent programs. Within those limits, its defining commitment is clear: Shane and Ilya turn a mother’s name and a son’s grief into a joint appeal for support, counseling, and assistance.