Kingston Family YMCA

Kingston, Ontario is the oldest community in Canada and our nation’s first capital. About 175 years after it was founded, the first game of modern hockey was played in 1855 in Kingston. Sport in Kingston isn’t about the buildings, arenas, fields or aquatic facilities it’s about people. From grass roots programs to elite level athletes the passion and dedication is evident. Hockey greats Kirk Muller, Doug Gilmour, Alyn McCauley, Don Cherry, and Jenna Hefford all hail from Kingston, as well as Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield and marathon swimmers Natalie and Jenna Lambert and myself all proudly represented Kingston as we participated in our chosen sports. Although we are proud of and celebrate our elite focused athletes in our community, Kingston is more about the everyday athletes -the ones seen running through our streets, training in our pools and playing in our fields and on our tracks. Our real athletic heroes include the “running man” who turned to running to escape the throws of addiction and who can be seen all seasons, morning and night running through our streets, to the throngs of triathletes who train year round and celebrate with the K-town triathlon in August, to all the sporting events that are run to support charitable endeavours. We love our sports, but even more we love giving back to our community by supporting charities. There are many amateur sports programs in Kingston with focus on, all ages and abilities. All are treated on par and celebrated equally. One unique team deserving mention is the Kingston Y Penguins Aquatic Club. In 8 years, this program has grown from a handful of kids to the largest swim team in Canada for swimmers with physical disabilities. It has developed a number of national level swimmers, as well as Triathlete Jeremy Baird who won bronze at Worlds in Hamburg Germany, and Jenna and Natalie Lambert who between the 2 of them set 5 world bests and raised over $250,000 to help build a pool in Kingston and support a program for children with physical disabilities. Kingston is also leading the way in Canada DanceSport in both able-bodied and wheelchair dance. We hold many annual events in our city beside the annual K-town triathlon, including Beat Beethoven run where runners complete their run before the symphony can finish playing 50 minutes of Beethoven and the Kids for Kids hockey tournament which provides a quality, fun hockey weekend for age group players. Proceeds are shared with local children and youth charities. If the $25,000 was presented to Kingston, I think it would be wonderful if the money was used to continue to develop integration of sport. Since Kingston is leading the way in integration in a number of sports, I would like the money used to allow the continuation of this movement in Kingston, and then the Kingston community can help other communities develop similar opportunities for athletes with physical disabilities

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