Swimming against Cancer
Jackie White has completed the 15km Swim Challenge for the Canadian Cancer Society! The challenge was to complete all 15km within one month. Jackie’s July was spent getting herself ready for this daunting task. Jackie, being an extremely busy person, had to get her August swims in whenever she had a spare hour or two!
She managed to finish up this past weekend. In honour of her Dad, she did the 15th km all in fly! The most difficult (butterfly) stroke, her Dad was top of mind. He had prostate cancer but beat it thanks to thanks to research, medicine, the Daffodil place in Sudbury. He passed away in 2016, (not from Cancer!) but her dad took her to all her swim practices when she was a kid.
Jackie is very impressed with all of the people who donated (and still can!) to her challenge. Her goal was $500 but her donations were at $2700 as of press time. The donation portal doesn’t close until September 7th! Jackie, always humble, is just thankful for the donations because “I simply got into a beautiful lake and did what I love to do, swim!”
Masters Indigenous Games
Ottawa played host to MIG 2023 and several Manitoulin athletes were there. Aurel Fox – Recollet continued with his amazing running results on the road and track! He finished 2nd in the 800m and third in the 3km race. I am not sure of their results but over on the links at the Canadian Golf and Country Club were local golfers: Justice Corbiere, Chris Manitowabi, Tyrone Beaudin, Tony Manitowabi, Dustin Peltier, Ellen Murray, Erin Morrison, Martha Murray, Nikki Manitowabi, Andrew “Snooze” Corbiere, Cathy Fox and Ray “Hound” Corbiere! Congratulations to all competitors!
Manitoulin Motocross!
“Team Douglas” is currently putting two children on the race tracks and keeping Manitoulin Island represented! Deacon age 6 and Parker 8, are cousins but act like brothers have attended a couple of races this year at Runway Park in Sault Ste. Marie and the Motopark in Chatsworth.
Deacon developed the passion for riding and racing two years ago at age four. He enjoys his lessons and takes every opportunity to develop new skills to bring to the race track to get stronger and faster. Deacon is currently driving a KTM 50cc.
Parker’s first words ever spoken were “beep beep!” He started riding at the age of three and a half years old and has a passion for racing. He has worked very hard to be able to race. He has placed in the top three a few times in Sault Ste. Marie. This year, Parker is often racing against older children because he has advanced to the big track and driving a KTM 65cc.
The boys started in the farm field at home. Every day, as soon as Parker eyes were open, he begged to ride. He first started on a quad but he had this will to get on two wheels, so it happened very quickly. Deacon then wanted to try a dirt bike and then advanced to the track and then they were hooked. From there has been non-stop growth and commitment to train.
I didn’t realize that the Providence Bay track was no longer operating but the lads were keen to travel. If there is a will there is a way! So, the boys do their training every weekend at the Motopark in Chatsworth in order to continue to follow their passion to race. The two boys have dreams of racing the AMO (Amateur Motocross Ontario) track next year and continue to train to meet this goal. This year, they both attended a motopark camp which helped them work with a coach daily.
Their coaches, Amelia Matchett and Kyle King from Motopark say Deacon focuses on the techniques and listens to the lessons. Parker is all speed and wants to fly through the track and will figure it out as he goes. They both get the job done, just in different ways.
Although there are many stories, one great one relayed to me was that Deacon, one day, comes off the track and says “Grandma, I accidentally got air on one of the jumps and laughed.” When told that he is supposed to get air on the jumps, his reply, “oh okay, I can do that.” Also, Parker hit a jump really high and came down and had a really good wipe out. He came off the track so upset. He said, “I am not angry about the wipe out, I am upset I didn’t have my ‘go pro’ set up yet and I could have caught the whole thing on it.” Keep up the hard work, boys!
A good sport is good for sports!
chipstoquips@gmail.com
