The 30th Carl Oak swim-a-thon

On February 12th I joined Vicki Keith and Annaleise Carr at the 30th annual Carl Oak swim-a-thon at the Peterborough YMCA for the Easter Seals. A few weeks before the event I was invited my none other than Marilyn Bell. Marilyn Bell is not only the first person to ever swim across Lake Ontario, paving the way for ultra-distance swimmers in our sport, but also later swam both the English Channel and Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Sadly, due to health reasons Marilyn was not able to make it to the event, but I’m so thankful she invited me and introduced me to the Peterborough Rotary Club because I had so much fun! The first night we arrived myself, my sister, and a few swimmers from our Ridley team went out for Dinner with Vicki and her swim team, the YMCA Penguins. The organizer for the event also came and Vicki and I signed a shirt for Carl Oake.

The next day we started the day early and my mom and I headed over to the YMCA for the swim-a-thon. The day began by getting a chance to meet a few of the hard-working volunteers, getting pictures with some of the relay groups and of course meeting the man who started it all, Carl Oak.

Vicki Keith is not only a Canadian icon in the world of swimming and sport, but she sat or almost 24 hours in a kayak beside me with my mom during my swim and she is also the head coach for the Y penguins, a team designed to help physically disabled swimmers achieve their goals. So, I was so excited when I finally got the chance to meet a few of the Y penguins that Vicki has trained. They were all so nice and it was so impressive to watch them all swim. While I was in the water with them Vicki looked at my freestyle and gave me a few pointers, on opening up my stroke, to take some pressure off my shoulders.

The whole morning was so much, and later that day I got a chance to speak at one of the local elementary schools, The St. Catharines Catholic School. I was pretty nervous because I haven’t talked in front of such a large group of young kids before, but it went really well. I love getting a chance to talk about the Always LikeAGirl campaign and about Jumpstart, so it was an awesome afternoon. The principal came up afterward and talked about my sister’s upcoming swim and how as a family we all support each other and that in a school where there are kids learning every day they need to support each other like a family too. It was a really neat perspective that I will not soon forget!

Thank you for having me Peterborough, and good luck with your future fundraising!