One final day of training, before those taking part in this year’s Big Swim will enter the waters, to raise funds for Brigadoon Village Camp.
The swim will look a little different than the traditional one, between New Brunswick and PEI, across the Northumberland Strait.
This year, it’ll be in Nova Scotia waters on the Bras d’Or Lakes in Baddeck, on August 8th.
Beth Hamilton is Co-event Director and wanted to make sure the Big Swim returned after it was cancelled in 2020, “In January of 2021, the pandemic was still very real in Atlantic Canada and we still weren’t sure if we would be able to have the event. That’s when they decided to move it to Baddeck, which is still very ocean like.”
The Big Swim has raised over $1.3 million dollars over the past ten years to Brigadoon Village, a year-round camp for kids and families in Atlantic Canada with health conditions or other life challenges in Atlantic Canada.
Fifty-nine-year-old Kelly Cain of Fredericton, New Brunswick is one of over 50 swimmers to take part this year, along with her kayaker Mark Leger, by her side.
Cain has taken part in the Big Swim once before, across the Northumberland Strait, “The year we did the PEI swim, it was a beautiful day. There were some folks pulled out to warm up, because the water was really cold, even while wearing wetsuits.”
But she says, “When the going gets tough and you are out there, you think about the campers and you think about how they lived with discomfort and physical limitations and challenges and all that goes with it. You just feel extremely lucky to have the health and the ability to do something life this.”
There are two options this year, an eight kilometre and a twelve kilometre Big Swim.
Cain and her kayaker will be doing the twelve kilometre. She says the training is one of the bigger challenges, but they are very supportive, “There’s always so much motivation from the day you register to the time you get to the start line. It’s very much time to spend time with my kayaker. I’m not sure who has the rougher job, me or Mark. He has to keep me safe and give me food. It’s also an opportunity to spend to time in nature and to hear the sounds of birds and marine life.”
Cain says it is an incredible cause to raise money for, and she recommends the Big Swim as a feat for anyone interested to try, “When you have the desire to do something, do it. Life is unpredictable and as we have learned over the last year and a half with COVID-19, they say life is happening while you are making other plans. “A lot of really average people, not particularly competitive in their swimming or anything, just do it for the cause, they do it for the opportunity and just the extraordinary day to do something that you may never do again.”
(Photo: submitted by Kelly Cain, from Big Swim across Northumberland Strait in 2018)
With files from Anastasia Payne
