By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  September 5, 2012  Once they become  Olympians  the title is with them for life.  We applaud them, we laud their achievements and in Burlington we have claimed five as our own – and then we realized we have a sixth – that being Brandon Wager who is participating at the London Paralympic Games.

Canadian cupcakes for three of our Olympians. From the left – Mark Oldershaw, Colin Russell and Melanie Booth.

Burlington held a small reception for the Olympians, it was the second such event.  There was a get together in the Atrium for Colin and Sinead Russell, held to accommodate Sinead’s travel plans.  She was leaving the next day to begin her sports scholarship at a university in Florida.

The event Tuesday evening was larger and included Melanie Booth and Mark Oldershaw.  Melanie was part of the soccer team that dazzled Canadians who felt the pain when the Canadian team lost the opportunity to bring home Gold – but we happily accepted bronze and know that next time out the world is going to watch a superior soccer team.

Oldershaw, who is the fifth member of his family to take part in the Olympics, was on hand.  The man has a remarkably laid back approach to people and speaks exceptionally well.  We will see more of this man.

Both athletes in the room passed their medal around and let anyone wear it for a while.

The unpredictable weather resulted in a small crowd. Other activities kept MP Mike Wallace away (on vacation in Italy) while MP Jane McKenna was in the Legislature debating a bill to ensure teachers don’t walk out. The Mayor came close to getting all mushy about that final soccer game when the Canadian team earned bronze medals

Mayor Goldring came close to getting a little carried away with himself when he spoke of watching every minute of the soccer game “that brought home”  the bronze medals.  Didn’t we all do that?

These young men and woman went to personal lengths few of us manage to do in our lives.  Mindless hours of putting their bodies through routine after routine.  They take on a lifestyle that shuts out many of the pleasures and pleasantries the rest of us enjoy day in and day out.

This is what an Olympian wears when they want to make a fashion statement.

They push their bodies to limits the rest of us don’t even think about doing.  They go without.  They take a pass on opportunities that don’t fit in with the lifestyle of being an Olympian,

We remember them when they win medals and forget them if they don’t.  We want their autographs when they win and don’t even recognize them when they just take part in the Games.

For the record – here is what these remarkable men and woman did:

Melanie Booth; Bronze medal in Woman’s soccer

Scott Dickens, Men’s 100 m breaststroke, Men’s 200 m breaststroke, Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay

Mark Oldershaw; Bronze medal in 1×1000 m canoe sprint.

Colin Russell: Men’s 4×100 Freestyle relay, Men’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay.  Colin retired from Olympic competition this year.

Sinead Russell; Woman’s 100 m backstroke, Woman’s 200 m backstroke.

Brandon Wager; currently at the Paralympic Games

Susan Fraser brought her canoe paddle to the civic reception for the Olympians hoping that Mark Oldershaw would autograph it for her. He willingly signed the paddle which will probably never go into the water again.

The beauty of an electronic media is that what we write is on the web site for as long as we choose to keep it there – and we are thinking in terms of decades.  Among the memories will be the picture of Susan Fraser having her paddle signed by Mark Oldershaw. “What are you going to do with it now?” someone  asked. “I’m taking it to bed with me tonight” replied Fraser.  “My husband can sleep on the couch”.

Oldershaw was very generous in letting people handle his Bronze Medal and put it around their necks.  The scene in the city hall atrium was a public adoring and honouring their Olympians.

The Paralympic Athletes had 20 medals as of this reporting with five gold in the bag.  Brandon Wagner who plays basketball from his wheelchair learned his sport inAldershot.  He will be honoured by the city when  he returns from the games.

 By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON Burlington, ON—Aug. 30, 2012 – Burlington resident Michele Benoit who was scheduled to attempt a 45KM Lake Ontario crossing this summer has had to postpone until 2013.  In an effort to raise awareness and funds for clean water in Africa, Benoit was scheduled to swim 45KM from Port Dalhousie, St. Catharines to Spencer Smith Park in Burlington on August 17, 2012.  Severe, unfavorable weather and water conditions forced the swimmer to reschedule and re-plan for a new date.

“Open water swimming is one of the most unpredictable sports around due to the reliance on the conditions” says Benoit.  “You can plan and be completely prepared to attempt a crossing, but if the weather and water do not cooperate, it’s completely out of your control”.

Lots of pool time this winter for Michele Benoit as she turns her energy and determination to being ready for a 2013 attempt to swim from Port Dalhousie to Burlington as a fund raising event for Waves for Water, a charity that wants to build systems in Africa that will provide fresh water.

And this is what Ms. Benoit has had to accept.  “I have done everything possible to make my attempt for 2012 but between unfavorable conditions and unavailability of boats and crew at the end of the season, I have to set my sights on next year.”

With the water and the air getting a lot colder now, the focus will be on a new year of training, planning and continuing to raise awareness and funds for clean water in undeveloped countries.  “I will be back in 2013 strong, ready and determined to raise as much money as I can for clean water in Africa. “

Ms. Benoit started Waves for Water to help those in need.  Her choice to do a swim of this magnitude was to raise awareness and funds and spread the message of ‘Making Waves for Water’ big or small.  “This swim has never been about Benoit – it was about how an event can champion a cause”.  A new date will be announced in the Spring of 2013.

Maybe Burlington will be able to stand on the pier and watch Benoit arrive at the small beach to the west of the pier currently under construction.  The city still talks of it being “open” in the spring of 2013 and if the weather holds that just might be possible.

“I would like to thank my family, my team and everyone who was so incredibly supportive,” Benoit said.  “Be ready!  I plan to return next year for a successful crossing!”

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  August 13, 2012  The pint sized lady who is going to swim Lake Ontario from Port Dalhousie to Burlington this Friday and Saturday, is at that frenzied stage;  trying to get it to that “it’s all together now” stage.  Michele Benoit isn’t there yet.

The hard, day in day out training is behind her – if she isn’t in top shape physically now – she never will be. Her mental condition will be known by this swimmer the moment she slips into the water.

She could use someone with a Zodiac for the trip that will last at least 20 hours.  She has one – she would like a second one.    By the end of the week she will have all the pieces in place and slip into the water Friday evening and begin the solid stroke after stroke that will get her from there to here.

That pixie look hides a very determined woman who has decided to take on Lake Ontario

Making this happen has not been an easy task.  The swim is badly under-funded.  It has had to scrimp and scrape to get the equipment and people needed to make this happen.  But bit by bit – the pieces are falling into place and Benoit continues her daily swims and exercise routines.

Mayor Goldring has been tweeting his audience about the event.  The city is getting ready to set up a small tent to receive Benoit when she comes ashore sometime Saturday afternoon.  The special entrance being put in place to get to the “instant beach” formed on the west side of the under construction pier was moved up in the schedule so Benoit could land there.

They are still working out just where the people who are going to be at Port Dalhousie with her will park their cars once someone brings them back to Burlington.

Stephen Turner is part of the crew serving as the paramedic.  Billy Johnson and Joe Atikian will drive the boats. Christine Arsenault is her swim master.   Colleen Shields is one of the pacers as well as a boat driver.

You swim across a lake by putting one arm in the water after the other – with a Lake Ontario swim – you can be doing that for as much as 24 hours. That`s the battle between Michele Benoit and Lake O

As Benoit strokes toward shore there will be a large crowd of people out on the Beachway Park building sand castles and when the word gets to them – they may walk to the other end of the Park and be on hand to greet this unbelievably committed young lady who has been doing media interviews that range from the French CBC radio station to a handful of small Christian based radio program and an interview on 100 Huntley Street.

Benoit brings a strong Christian commitment to the swim – it is not something she is doing just to get her name on a list of people who have swum across the lake.  The swim is the first step in a planned approach to raise funds for an organization that helps people in Africa get fresh water.

Benoit will tell you all you ever want to know about the plight of people in a number of African countries where fresh water – something we take for granted – is a precious and at times hard to come by commodity.

Waves for Water is the charity all this swimming is being done for.  Once the swim is completed – and there is absolutely no doubt in Benoit’s mind that she will complete the swim – in record time?  That’s not something she can tell you.  Everything depends on the weather.  High winds will mean large waves and that means more time – but for Benoit –well she will face what she is given.

Her team is in place – for the most part.  Her Mom and Dad is going to be there as is her sister, niece and nephew, who will handle the land side communications.

Her feeders are in place – these are the people that will get nutrients to her from a cup at the end of a pole.  Matt Smith heads up that task as well as being the crossing coach.   Deborah Arsenault is the nutritionist preparing the feed. Her pacers will be aboard one of the accompanying craft.  During the swim various pacers will be in the water with her to help her keep a steady arm over arm stroke.

It`s a cold forbidding body of water that Benoit will slip into next Friday night. She believes that she is up to the challenge.

Doug Hawksworth will be out there with his sailboat along with members of the family, Chelsea and Candice and Brett White  helping out.

Sue Reed is her crossing manager. Miguel Vadillo will help with the pacing as well as driving the boat which has to have huge lights on it at night so that Benoit is never out of sight.

Geoff Farrow will also pace and drive the boat.

Jessie Douglas will be along as the photographer.

Michael Shaen and sister Kim are land co-ordinators.

Chris Chriswick, Bud Seawright, Nigel Reed and Branko Dren will be part of the crew on the landside of things.

There is a team meeting on Tuesday – the last one before the pace changes and Michele Benoit prepares herself for the challenge – the awesome struggle between her and what she calls Lake O.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  August 2, 2012  It takes a certain character, commitment and frame of mind to get up well before the sun rises each day and slip into the cold waters of Lake Ontario.

It takes time, energy and a certain focus to swim day after day while you build up your strength and your stamina as arm goes over arm pulling yourself forward through the water – sometimes against a tide that wants to take you in another direction.

A chase craft follows every foot of the way – watching every move while Michelle Benoit completes a 25 km swim on the old Welland canal with Christine Walker in the water pacing her.

Later this month – Michelle Benoit, a 42 year old nutritionist and personal trainer with a life’s worth of swimming experience, will put herself up against one of the harder challenges in the world of long distance swimmers.  She will leave Port Dalhousie the evening of Saturday the 17^th of August and head for Burlington where she plans to land close to 18 hours later on the “instant” beach in the eastern end of Spencer Smith Park.

Our Burlington has been calling  it the  “instant beach”, since the day we saw it while on a tour of the pier construction site while looking for those lamp lights that had disappeared.  The beach was formed due to the way water swirls around the caissons and the land formation built as part of the pier, could well be named Benoit Beach honouring the crossing of the lake.

Toronto has a Marilyn Bell Park to commemorate her successful crossing of the lake; an opportunity here for the Mayor to put a bit of a positive spin on the problems that surround the pier.

Marilyn Bell in 1954 as she swan across Lake Ontario as a 16 year old.

Just over 65 people have managed to successfully swim across Lake Ontario since 1954 when Marilyn Bell, then a 16 year old, completed her swim in 20 hours and 55 minutes on September 8^th and 9^th.  50,000 Torontonians were on the shore to welcome her landing from her start in Youngstown, Ohio – can Burlington produce even 5,000 people.

Part of the team that follows every stroke: Brian Finlay, on the right,  a master long distance solo swimmer who has done the English Channel, serves at the key guide. Mike Schultz, drives out from his printing company in Toronto every time the boat is needed on the water.  The moment Benoit is out of the water Finlay checks her body temperature to make sure she is recovering from the swim.

Benoit had a magnificent crew working with her while she did the hours of training.  Christine Arsenault, Billie Johnson, Chris Chriswick and others were in the water pacing her through the nine hour day.

There isn’t a day that Benoit is not in the water doing stroke after stroke as she strives to keep her body in top physical form.

After more than nine hours in the water during an endurance swim on the Welland River, Benoit gobbles down a banana and enjoys a laugh with her crew.

Earlier in July she did a 25 km endurance test in the Welland River, a body of water that has both wind to deal with and strong currents.  She swam leg after leg as she piled up the kilometres with different pace swimmers joining her on the journey.  When she completed that endurance test she headed for the dock where she pulled herself up out of the water and sat shivering on the deck while her pacer heaved to hoist herself out of the water – but not quite hard enough and slipped back in.  That was a funny moment for the less than half of dozen people out to help during the test.

As a nutritionist Benoit knows how to care for her body and ensure that she is getting the protein she needs.  While she is just a slip of a thing she has amazing physical strength; but it is her strength of mind that carries her forward. For Benoit this swim is as much a personal calling as it is a swim across an unforgiving body of water.  She is not a “professional solo long distance swimmer.  She has a mission and that is to raise both money and awareness for what she sees as a tragic situation in Africa – Togo to be specific, where tens of thousands of children die every year because the water they drink and use is contaminated.

Benoit has partnered with Compassion Canada, an organization that can issue tax receipts and ensure that the donation goes to the project they were meant to support – water projects in Togo Africa.

While Compassion Canada serves as the organization that can accept funds, issue tax receipts and ensure they get where they were supposed to go – Benoit’s Waves for Water is her longer term project.

It is going to cost close to $20,000 to get the work done needed in Togo and that doesn’t deter this almost tiny woman with a smile that charms and energy that is infectious.

Benoit sees challenges as opportunities.  When she was completing her endurance swim in Lake Ontario a few weekends ago she had difficulty getting to the shore – not because she was tired or the waves were too high..  “We couldn’t  see the shore line – there were too many motor boats and Seadoos racing by.  They had no idea what we were doing but we knew what they were doing – getting in the way.”

When the solo swim across the lake is done Benoit will then begin working on the next phase of her mission – and that is to create a charity that will be called “Laps for Loonies” which will be held across the country – much like the Terry Fox run – to raise awareness about the problem with water in many African countries and to raise funds as well to build water solutions for these people.

Benoit chose to swim form Port Dalhousie to Burlington rather than the traditional Niagara to Toronto route. “Burlington is home and I wanted to land in the community where I am asking people to support an important project” explains Benoit.  She has partnered with Compassion Canada so that all funds donated go directly to the project in Africa.

What MIchele Benoit is setting out to do is a challenge but it is also poetic – her body is at one with nature as she strokes through the water – here she is working her way through a 25km swim with a pacer in the water with her – the sun on their bodies as they swim in unison.

After most of the day in the water Benoit shivers on the dock on the Welland River, waiting for blankets and for people to check her body temperature.

Benoit works part time for a health services company in Burlington and at the same time trying to breathe some life into her nutritional supplements business. “That’s something I may have to give up on” says Benoit, “I’ve been at that one for ten years and it may be one of those things that just wasn’t meant to be.”

Michele Benoit with her dog Buckley – he goes wherever she goes but he won’t be in Lake Ontario when she does her across the Lake swim. Expect him to be on hand when she comes ashore at Spencer Smith Park.

Financially – life is a challenge.  The swimming takes up all her time but the rent has to be paid and she has to eat so she works at something that fits in with her approach to life and her demanding schedule.

Throughout it all Benoit has her family supporting her emotionally as well as her dog Buckley, who misses her when she is out of the house but who is definitely not going to swim along beside her.

When Benoit comes ashore there will be a large crowd, maybe someone from the Mayor’s Office, television crews and all kinds of media.  There will also be an ambulance standing close by – a requirement if the swim was to be sanctioned and also a sign that solo swimmers are at significant personal risk.

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON  July 29, 2012   Burlington has three native citizens in the 2012 Olympics..

Burlington’s Sinead Russell comes out of her start in fine form during the semi finals for backstroke event. (Photo courtesy Ian Macnicol/Swimming Canada

Sinead Russell advanced  to the semi-finals in the women’s 100 backstroke at the 2012 Olympic Games.

She will compete in the finals if she qualifies in Monday and Tuesday.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  June 25, 2012  Cindy Mercanti, who has worked in Community Services for almost three  years, where she was instrumental in reviewing and enhancing programs and processes within Parks and Recreation, has put her foot on the corporate ladder and is joining the General Managers office on a secondment until December 2013.

This position will make use of her operational skill set and take her out of an environment where people skills were vital.

Mercanti, was involved in getting the Alton community centre off the ground as well as working with the construction company building the North Burlington Skate Park that is part of the Norton Park across the street.

Cindy Mercanti is joining the General Managers office for a secondment that will last until December 2013. Here she looks over construction plans at the North Burlington Skate Park.

Mercanti, who was Manager of recreational Services at Parks and Recreation,  will be involved in the leadership team roll out of the deployment of performance measurement based on “results based accountability”,  and the implementation of business plans for all services.  Cindy Mercanti will be beginning her assignment June 25th.

Results based accountability is the approach city manager Jeff Fielding brought to Burlington.  The concept is considerably different than the approach taken previously and it means training senior staff just how it works and then having the concept work its way down into each department.

This operational side of city hall is where it is hoped Mercanti will excel, while others work on the people side of things at Parks and Recreation where relationships with the Seniors’ Centre are in the process of being repaired and grown.