Getting Goggles to Grenada

Reprint Courtesy of Cambridge Times

By Bill Doucet, Times Staff 

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/sports/article/1294728--getting-goggles-to-grenada

Former Aquajets coach spearheads overseas donations

Leave it to the Cambridge Aquajets to make a splash in the Caribbean.

Of course, it took one of their alumna to get the process flowing, as former coach Kristine Deacon asked the team to donate any gently used or forgotten swim accessories to primary age school kids in Grenada.

Deacon, who works as a capacity support officer for the Commonwealth Games Canada International Development through Sport program on the southern Caribbean island, thought of the Cambridge fundraiser while working with the Ministry of Youth Empowerment in Sports’ swim program for the students, who are under the age of 12.

The program provides partial government funding to teach kids, who may not otherwise get the coaching, to swim.

“Grenada is considered a developing country, so there are a lot of students that come from families where the money wouldn’t be possible to learn how to swim at a club level,” said the 24-year-old Cambridge native, who works closely with the Grenada Olympic Committee, and helps with coaching and sports development on the island.

Most of the children that Deacon helps teach don’t have proper swim accessories, so Deacon decided to call Aquajets coach Ron Campbell and pitched the idea to him, which she called Goggles for Grenada.

Campbell challenged the Aquajets to bring in as much swimwear as possible, which Deacon would bring back to the country after her Christmas vacation back in Cambridge. She’d been in Grenada since April 18, 2011.

Campbell’s rallying cry worked.

“I was blown away with what the club was able to get,” Deacon said.

“There was goggles and caps, fins, bathing suits, even t-shirts. I was amazed at what they’d been able to do.

“It was great to see the community I grew up in giving to a great cause in Grenada.”

In fact, the club donated about 30 pairs of goggles, six bathing suits, one pair of fins, 20 bathing caps and club t-shirts. Deacon couldn’t bring them all back herself and her father brought the rest on a visit to see his daughter.

Deacon said the donation might not seem like much, but to the kids, it was like giving them gold.

“In Canada, growing up as a swimmer my whole life, you think of a pair of goggles as just a pair of goggles,” she explained, noting how hard it is to swim in the chlorine without them.

“The swimmers down here may not just have the money to get it. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but I think it will leave a lasting impact.”

Deacon admitted that every little bit helps, as the kids are already at a disadvantage, swimming in a 25-yard pool that still isn’t fully repaired from the damage it received at the hands of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. And it’s not like they can go to another pool, as it is the only one on the island of 100,000 people.

“It’s doable, but it wouldn’t meet the standards of most countries. For the purpose of teaching younger swimmers, I think it’s fine. They make it work.”

Deacon said trying to help out her current community isn’t much of a stretch. She’s donated a lot of her time in Grenada, including helping coach a club team on Saturday morning, and teaching students from an all-girls’ school to swim Saturday afternoons on the beach.

Maybe that was one of the reasons the Commonwealth Games committee chose her as one of 15 post-secondary students for the internship after she graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University. The committee was looking for people in a field related to the internship, such as kinesiology or sports management. She was armed with a double degree in Canadian studies and global studies.

Looks like they made the right choice though.

“I always like to help other people, that’s my nature,” she said.

“I felt it was a great opportunity for the club to work together.”

Deacon’s internship ends on March 31, but starting Goggles for Grenada has inspired her to continue to help others in need, even when she’s in another career.

“There’s a need in many countries. I’ve been part of fundraisers in the past, as in high school we did a fundraiser for students in Kenya. So this is something I would definitely consider doing down the road,” she said.