Paddle up!
Thumbs up to a new canoe club in Halton Hills
By the end of the inaugural meeting of a public steering committee to start such a group, held at the Fairy Lake boathouse on Oct. 10 in Acton, there was unanimous agreement to move forward with forming a club.
Participants included many-time canoe racing medalist Rama Gilverson, the owners of Holy Cow Canoe, Naomi McQuade and Gulam Baloch, town councillor Jon Hurst, town staff, 12 year old Canadian canoe champ Emma MacLean of Acton and her parents, as well as representatives from the business community, residents and paddling enthusiasts.
Gilverson, who was a PhD candidate in Political Science and Sport at the University of Alberta and has amassed more than 65 world medals in the sport, chaired the meeting and laid the foundation for the merits of a club at Fairy Lake. She told a story about racing in Australia where she trains during the winter. Fellow racers teased, “How’s your duck pond?” But then she went on to come first. “Nobody could beat me.”In a nutshell, Gilverson explained that she has trained on this lake for more than 10 years – “no one has fallen into this lake as many times as I have,” she said. It has deep and shallow sections and is suitable for training in many types of racing, including flatwater and high kneeling. “It’s a perfect course for short sprint,” she added.
She also told how she met her protégé, Emma. Gilverson was nursing a shoulder injury and struggling to get her canoe off the car. Emma came up and asked, “Can I help?” One thing led to another, and Gilverson coached the youngster for just 2 weeks before she entered the Canadian Marathon Canoe Race and won gold in her age group. (“I’m a tough coach,” noted Gilverson.)
“If Emma can do it, why can’t hundreds of kids do it?” Gilverson asked.
“If you have a love of sport and the commitment, you too can be a world champion. You just need to know the formula,” she said. “We have living proof right here.”
The steering committee identified in broad strokes streams the club could develop: competition, safety, youth, seniors and adaptive programming, summer camps and more.
Next steps for the prospective club are to form a board of directors, set a mission statement, determine goals, and be established enough to apply for grant funding by upcoming deadlines. It will meet bi-weekly this fall to achieve this. Emma’s dad, TJ MacLean, asked participants to come to next meeting with a list of five ideas for a primary brainstorming session.
Town staff was very supportive of the idea, and pledged help with tasks like grant writing and event promotion.
Hurst said he couldn’t foresee “a councilor that would be opposed to this.”
“We have a hidden jewel,” he noted. “And a lot of Emmas out there to be discovered.”
The next meeting of the canoe club steering committee will be Wed. Oct. 24, 6 pm at the boathouse. Open to public, everyone welcome. Bring a friend. Info, Naomi at Holy Cow Canoe: admin@holycowcanoe.com
Comentários