Many creative and talented people have Springfield roots. They include musicians like Taj Mahal, Academy Award winning costume designer Ruth Carter, athletes Vinny Del Negro, Travis Best, Tim Mayotte, dancer Eleanor Powell, and, of course, Theodor Geisel, Dr. Suess. There are countless others.
Chris Thibault was a Springfield native and studied film and video at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. He brought his talents back to Springfield. This was his home. He wanted to highlight all the good it had to offer. This was evident in the videos he produced for Bright Nights at Forest Park, Spirit of Springfield, City of Springfield, and Springfield’s Union Station. They were award winning.
Chris lost his battle with cancer on February 8, 2021. He was 38, a son, brother, husband, and father to three. Chris, his wife, Missy, and his children, were and always will be a part of the Spirit of Springfield’s family.
Please take a few moments to get to know Chris in this newsletter.
-- Judy Matt
President
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How We Met Chris Thibault
“I would love to create an amazing, cinematic online experience through live video (not a photo slideshow) of a car/family traveling through Bright Nights. I am always trying to help Springfield any way I can and I know I can really hit it out of the park for you guys and create video content that will capture the imagination of an audience, with the end goal of getting people to come and view in person. I can do this for a very reasonable price.”
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This was Chris Thibault’s message through Bright Nights at Forest Park’s Facebook page on November 25, 2013.
A meeting was set. He arrived with a lovely young woman, his editor. Her name was Missy Boyle. A date was set to film at Bright Nights after Christmas. He arrived with Missy and son, Brayden. They were the actors for the Bright Nights commercial.
The commercial premiered in 2014 for Bright Nights 20th season. It won a Communicator Award, and evoked great emotions by all who saw it. That was just the beginning.
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Chris went on to share his talents by producing Bright Nights commercials year after year. He reached a pinnacle with the video he created for Bright Nights at Forest Park’s 25th Anniversary. It premiered at the 2019 City of Bright Nights Ball at MGM Springfield. It included interviews with Bright Nights co-creators, Spirit of Springfield’s President Judy Matt and Patrick Sullivan, Executive Director for Springfield’s Department of Parks, Buildings, and Recreation Management, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, Massachusetts National Guard Adjutant General, Major General Gary Keefe, MassMutual Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Roger Crandall, and U. S. Congressman Richard Neal, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. It was shown on a 70-foot wide LED screen that was provided by JX2 Productions. It received a standing ovation.
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Chris Teebo Films Work
Chris Teebo Films has a list of accomplishments that is a mile long. Many are commercial and some were done to stretch the creative talents of Chris and his team. Remember the Big Y World Class Markets’ advertisement with former New England Patriot’s Vince Wilfork? That was Chris Teebo Films. The hand moving the piece through The American Women’s College commercial belonged to his editor/wife, Missy Thibault. The recent Health New England television advertisement was another Chris Teebo Films project. There was Mercedes-Benz of Springfield, Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, and MassMutual.
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Chris also captured the spirit of a street dancer, Desmond, a New England’s sports enthusiast with Gus Nation, and a martial artist, as a way to use his talents to showcase others. He also produced a video for the City of Springfield that took home the Silver Award at 2016 International Economic Development Council Conference.
Then there was the less glamorous including FastenMaster, DFF Corporation, and a high-end coffee maker. He could make anything look interesting.
He could tell a story in 30 seconds or less. His camera was his paint brush. His canvas was the screen.
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A Love Story
Chris Thibault shared a video class with Missy Boyle at Springfield’s High School of Science and Technology. Both continued their education in video production. Chris went to New York. Missy went to Florida.
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When Missy returned to Springfield with hopes of pursuing her career goals, she reached out to her former classmate. She joined his team, part-time at first, but as the company’s client base grew so did her commitment to the company and Chris.
In 2012, their personal relationship became “official.” Before too long, they became Mr. & Mrs. Thibault. Together, they were raising Brayden. In 2015, they welcomed their first daughter, Skylar. Three years later, Cassidy joined the family. Rocko, a pit bull mix, was also a beloved member of the family.
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In his blog he wrote, "I have a strong team behind me, especially my wife, Missy. She has been literally keeping me alive and steering me in the right direction. She is way more knowledgeable than me with all this cancer stuff and will be a key role in all of this moving forward, including the documentary work we are doing. I would not be able to do this without her." |
A Battle to Live
Breast cancer was the first battle Chris Thibault had to beat. It would not be the last. Chris was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. It was rare in men. He was cancer free for more than four years.
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The cancer returned in October of 2018. He wrote in his blog, “Make no mistake the cancer cells in my body are on a mission from hell to grow and kill me. Is it stage 4? Yes. Is it considered a terminal illness? Yes. Has it spread to my lungs, spine, ribs, hip and pelvic bone? Check. Do I cough constantly and get winded from simple things like walking up the stairs? Yessir. Is there a known medical cure? Nope.” |
Chris, with his wife, Missy, by his side, tried treatments, both traditional and cutting edge. After the third prescribed medical treatment did not work, he went to Canada for an integrative health treatment session. There was loco hyperthermia, vitamin C, and mistletoe therapies. He said the full body hyperthermia is “where they basically cook you like a turkey for three hours.” |
They were determined to win the battle. Chris even continued to work. Some days he was weaker than others. He had a family to provide for and so much creativity to share.
He was also dealing with Brandon, his young brother, who was battling melanoma cancer, and in 2019, his death.
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When the cancer traveled to his brain, he and Missy decided to try brain surgery. He continued to get weaker. He took one day at a time, until February 8, 2021.
At his memorial service, his brother, Dan, said, “In the middle of a storm, that guy always had sunny days.”
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Go Fund Me for Chris' Family
As Chris Thibault grew weaker, he found it more difficult to work. It was not for a lack of trying or desire. Chris had a strong work ethic from an early age.
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When Chris passed at the age of 38, he left behind a beautiful family, medical bills, and an uncertain future for how his wife, Missy, would provide for their family moving forward. The Spirit of Springfield setup a GoFundMe page and the community rallied. His friends, his family, his colleagues, clients, and complete strangers. |
The first goal was set at $30,000. In little more than 24 hours, that had been raised. The bar was then set at $50,000. Today, funds total more than $53,000, and counting! |
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• How We Met Chris Thibault
• Chris Teebo Films Work
• A Love Story
• A Battle to Live
•Go Fund Me for Chris' Family
• Guest Column -
Missy Thibault,
Chris Teebo Films
• Go Fund Me Donation
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Missy Thibault
Producer/Editor
Chris Teebo Films
So much love pours in when a family loses a loved one. Through other people's words, a glimmer of the legacy left behind shines through. For our family, the support began while Chris was still here with us. We were able to see him feel every ounce of love that came his way and watched as he was filled with gratitude. I can only imagine how thankful he is now seeing the amount of support that is still coming in full force for his family.
Everyone keeps saying that they “don’t even know what to say” to me, and that “there are no words.” Well, I too am at a loss for words. Because “thank you” just doesn’t feel like enough. What can I say to a community of people who are literally holding me and my children up right now? I say THANK YOU, and that I truly feel every kind word spoken, and every effort being made, with my whole heart.
The financial support that my family has received via the GO FUND ME, setup by the Spirit of Springfield, and the Instagram/Venmo fundraiser via @lynzyandco, will allow us the time to figure out how to move forward. What’s next? No clue. I didn’t focus heavily on what should happen if we lost Chris, because my main focus was on his healing and supporting him in every way possible. That included work. Our family is CHRIS TEEBO FILMS. It’s our life, our passion, and our family’s source of income. He worked harder than anyone I’ve ever met for years to build this business in the city that we grew up in and cherish dearly. I will never forget the moment he shared with me so confidently that he had a moment of realization that he didn’t need to go to New York or LA to pursue his goals and live his dreams. He was so excited to say, “Let's do it right here in Springfield!” His excitement was contagious! And the next thing we knew, we were sitting with Judy Matt pitching ideas to showcase Bright Nights and Springfield for all that it was. How can we help shine a light here? It was those pure intentions of sharing real, local, stories that we infused into our business as we grew.
We had a beautiful service for Chris, one that I couldn’t have pulled off without the help of friends, family and colleagues. We shared memories not only through pictures and stories told, but through moving pictures and hearing his own voice. It was beautiful. I created a tribute video for him, and it felt only natural to place our logo at the end. It was a moment of reflection, I felt that he helped me create this video, and that we truly are still working together… just in a different way. So, for the sake of this video, I changed the logo a bit. MRS CHRIS TEEBO FILMS. No matter what I do moving forward, Chris and CHRIS TEEBO FILMS, will still be very much a part of it. His strength is palpable. I feel him guiding me, his ambition to take care of our family, and his passion to always continue to share stories.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I feel held, and I am grateful. I know that Chris is too.
We will never be able to wrap our heads around why he had to go so soon. Chris had so much love, ambition, passion, strength, kindness ...and just SO much more to give to the world. On the roughest of days when Chris felt that the end could be much sooner than we’d hoped, he said that he wasn’t afraid… he was just disappointed. All he wanted to do was to work hard, take care of his family, and make cool shit. I was strengthened by his fearlessness… and heartbroken for what we would all be losing as we lost him.
My heart, many hearts, are shattered by the loss of Chris. But I feel so held right now in the wave of love and support that I am wrapped in throughout this unfathomable heartache. It’s through his strength that I will get through this. His strength is palpable. No matter how weak he was getting physically, I made sure he knew that he was still, and would always be, the strongest person I know.
All he ever wanted to do was to work hard, create, inspire, and take care of his family. He didn’t want anything from anybody. I am heartbroken that he was unable to do everything he wanted to do here, but I am forever grateful for all that he was able to do.
I continued to remind him that no matter how weak he may have been getting physically, he was still and always would be the absolute strongest person I know. Always will be.
It shattered my heart in moments towards the end when he would look at me with disappointment and say “Man, I just wanted to make a movie”. His goals were always to create more personal, creative content for himself to inspire others and share his passion, not just create for others. His priorities were to provide for his family, so as long as he could stand, he was working.
He never liked to be the center of attention and he had a hard time allowing himself to really feel and embrace all the loving sentiments and support being thrown our way. Trust me when I say that in the moments when he did allow himself to really feel it all, it was overwhelmingly beautiful to witness.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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2021
Friday, July 16th
10am
Franconia Golf Course
Friday, September 10th
10am
Riverfront Park
Saturday, November 13th
6pm to 12am
MGM Springfield
November 24th to January 2nd
Forest Park
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