Fantastic Friday

(The Super Saturday Edition)

Part 1 – This past week in Toronto has been a particularly tough one for some of our communities and because of that the whole city has felt the impact.

A “community party” turned into a shooting gallery where 2 people were killed and several others were injured. Then consecutive homicides occurred in other parts of the city along with a few more shootings sprinkled in to top it all off. If we add in what just happened in Aurora Colorado, this has been a brutal week in the name of gun violence.

If this was about the homicides and shootings, it sure wouldn’t make for much of a Fantastic Friday post. Gladly, this isn’t about death…it’s about life.

In the wake of all the devastation are lives of those impacted by the cowardly acts of others. We never give much thought to these people…the focus is always on the dead and injured.

Who do the living turn to? Who do the survivors talk to about what happened and who supports them?

In Toronto, there is an incredible organization who is there for the victims, Victim Services.

This a volunteer organization who answers the call no matter what time of day or night tragedy strikes. Like many volunteer organizations, they rely on the charity of others to help make their organizations work.

Today, a group of police officers and volunteers left Toronto in the early morning hours to head to the other side of Lake Ontario to paddle canoes to Toronto in an effort to raise funds for Victim Services Toronto. Here is the story as told by Jack Boland of the Toronto Sun.

TORONTO – A group of Toronto Police officers hope that by putting paddle to water the ripple effect will grow into $10,000 to help victims of crime.

Staff-Insp. Heinz Kuck, of North Toronto’s 53 division, came up with the idea of traversing Lake Ontario in an outrigger canoe from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Mississauga five years ago. His simple aim was to help raise money for Victim Services Toronto.

The “Make Waves For Victims” team will be anchored by seven police officers from Kuck’s division, a member of the victim services office and coach Peter Buday — who is a former Canadian national kayaking champion and founder and head coach of Outrigger Performance Advantage.

They have been training for five months doing dry-land and in-water sessions for their July 21, 51.5-km trek across the lake — challenging wind, waves and whatever is thrown at them until they arrive at the Mississauga Canoe Club.

“For the past two months we have been out on the water,” said Kuck. “We have been relentlessly training to see that we can deal with the rigours of the Lake Ontario crossing.”

Kuck said the difference between doing the lake crossing as opposed to a 5- or 10-K run or a bike ride was to “draw the imagination of the public,” and inspire both people and corporate partners to donate money to their website, makewaves.myevent.com.

“The goal is $10,000, but we want to smash that and go way beyond it,” said Kuck.

Crossing Lake Ontario by canoe is daunting — the nine-member team can only have six paddlers in the outrigger at one time, so a support boat carrying the rest of the team will follow behind.

After 25 to 30 minutes paddlers from the support boat switch with those in the outrigger, alternating several times during the 51.5-km trek.

Insp. Joanna Beaven said one of the many challenges has been when the teammates switch.

“We are practising our exchanges from the boat (outrigger) to the water and then back into the boat,” said Bevan. “The water is very cold so our extremities, our feet, our hands, we started losing feeling in them. So that was the biggest challenge, trying to get back into the boat.”

Tracey Finlay, the only civilian member of the team, representing Victim Services Toronto, said, “What we are doing … pales in comparison to what victims have to go through,” said Finlay.

Victim Services estimated it helped close to 20,000 members of the public last year.

“So symbolically we are out there to stand in for the victims and what we are doing is challenging ourselves,” Finlay said.

Victim Services Toronto helps provide emotional and practical support to victims of crime, victims of tragedy and people who are in extreme grief or need at the time of a crisis

“We are trying to get some recognition out there as to what victims go through,” said Finlay, as the sun glinted off her sunglasses after the early morning training session.

“It is heartbreaking to see what children, families, communities have to go through. So it’s nice to see what an organization like this can (do) and step up to the plate,” she said.

In the time leading up to the July 21 crossing Kuck and his team will be visiting schools, malls and community centres to engage in various fund raising efforts. In one they will stage races against members of the public using indoor paddle machines.

They want the Make Waves program to become more than just a fund raiser — they hope it will raise awareness of Victim Services Toronto and encourage victims to call for help whenever it’s needed.

jack.boland@sunmedia.ca

You can follow their progress here.

Part 2 – Shortly after the Danzig Street Shooting, I received a message asking if I could help promote the East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club. The reason? They were offering free grief counselling to the community affected by the shooting.

Part 3 – A bomb scare occurred in the town of Barrie, Ontario this week which caused the evacuation of a few dozen homes for almost a week. What do people do when they can’t go to their homes for that kind of period of time? Who do they turn to? The Canadian Red Cross stepped up and they were there to assist helping with the needs of the many, put out by the action of others.

So this weeks Fantastic Friday goes to The Volunteer Spirit and those people who go out of their way to help others.