Algonquin Highlands deputy mayor Jennifer Dailloux says far from a midlife crisis, her upcoming five-kilometre charity swim is a celebration of turning 50 – and to raise money for the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust.
Dailloux will jump off her dock Aug. 17 and swim up the Oxtongue River to the base of Ragged Falls and back. She thinks the swim will take about three hours and 15 minutes to complete.
“I have been training for this all winter and am absolutely stoked for it,” she says on her Canada Helps fundraising page.
In addition to raising money for the Land Trust, an organization she has “loved for many years” and sits on the current board of directors, it is in honour of Steph Laurence, a friend who recently died but spend his working life at camps and lodges in Algonquin Park.
Dailloux said traditionally, land trusts protect sensitive ecosystems through the stewardship of properties entrusted to their care in perpetuity, as well as doing scientific research, education, and advocacy work.
“But HHLT is evolving beyond that mandate in breathtaking ways: it has identified a significant wildlife corridor here in the Highlands, comprised of 100,000 continuous hectares of predominantly undisturbed Crown, municipal, and private lands connecting three provincial parks.
“Rich in wetlands, forest, lakes and rivers, the corridor is a powerhouse of biodiversity, and its preservation is vital for the wildlife communities and species at-risk that call it home. Working in concert with private landowners and multiple levels of government, HHLT is committed to ensuring the corridor is recognized and safeguarded for the long-term.”
Speaking of Laurence, she added, “he has been involved in enabling thousands of campers, and adult guests at these resorts, to really connect with their natural surroundings.”
Dailloux started training in the fall and through winter at a pool in Huntsville. Since spring, she has been swimming in the river.
“Mine will not be a speed swim. This is a swim of reverence. It is a swim undertaken with my head held above the water, counting not the strokes but the swathes of water lilies, of purple pickerel weed and joe-pye weed, the pops of vibrant cardinal flower, the warblers and sparrows, herons and waxwings.
“Swimming along beside me, watching and listening and revelling in this delight, will be the echoes of my three grandmothers. Nan, on my left. Joan, on my right. And Anne, there with the megaphone, sitting in coxswain position on the safety boat. They would have loved this. Proud doesn’t begin to describe it.”
Nan is her maternal grandmother, a former long-distance swimmer and naturalist. Joan is her paternal grandmother. Her dad was adopted so she only recently connected with Joan, which she said had been a “most extraordinary reunion and coming together of minds and spirits, a beautiful thing.” She was also a sportswoman and naturalist. Anne is her adopted grandmother.
Asked if she has watched the movie, Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, about Nyad’s swims from Cuba to Florida, Dailloux said, “what a fabulous set of women and a fabulous movie.”
While this is not Cuba to Florida, “it’s not a bad swim and I have learned in my training over the course of the winter, and then really trying it out in the Oxtongue this spring and summer, that it’s a doable swim.”
She’ll have a current to contend with heading upriver, but it will be a more pleasant swim coming home. She added there are a number of places where you can stand up and walk because it’s shallow, but she won’t let her feet touch the ground.
Back to the midlife crisis question, Dailloux replies, “if anything, it’s a real midlife celebration. I’m happy where I am in my life. I’m delighted we have come to Haliburton County after years of being overseas and in pretty complex neighbourhoods, in conflict and post-conflict settings. I feel like we’ve really landed in a beautiful chapter of our lives. This is a great way of celebrating that.”
