Cheers & Jeers

CHEERS: To 15-year-od Charlottetown swimmer Alexa McQuaid who swam the best 50-metre race of her life and earned a silver medal in the process last Tuesday at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. She took almost a second off her personal best time in the breaststroke, completing the course in 33.48 to earn Prince Edward Island’s first and only medal in the Games. McQuaid now shares a special accomplishment with her mother as Katherine (Josey) McQuaid won silver in the 100-metre freestyle at the 1985 Games in Saint John, N.B. They are the only two Islanders to win a medal in the pool at the Games.

CHEERS: To longtime Town of Cornwall CAO Kevin McCarville, who will be honoured at an open house this Wednesday, Aug. 16, to mark his retirement from the Island’s 4th largest municipality. The open house takes place from 2-4 p.m. at the Cornwall Town Hall. Early in his career, McCarville worked in The Guardian’s circulation department at the newspaper’s Summerside bureau before joining his famous uncle Francis McIsaac for a stint with the harness racing scene.

CHEERS: To Merlin Affleck, the affable superintendent of golf at Stanhope Golf and Country Club, for completing the ‘Grand Slam of Golf ’ at his home course last weekend. Affleck, who had aced three of the four par three holes on the course going into the Stanhope Open, completed the Slam on the tourney’s opening day Aug. 5 by holing the 146-yard 13th, using a hybrid 5-iron. He had previously aced the par three 3rd, 6th and 10th holes. With many of the top Maritime pros in the Open field, Affleck stole their thunder with his heroics on the treacherous 13th, water hole.

CHEERS: To the Charlottetown Curling Club, which will host its annual Horsemen’s Dance on Thursday, Aug. 17. The popular Old Home Week tradition attracts horsemen, harness fans and music lovers. That same evening, the CCC has purchased a cooler for the winning horse in one of the races during Old Home Week. Curling club members are invited to take part in the cooler presentation. The popular band Phase 2 will provide music for dancing at the CCC from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m.

CHEERS: To proud Islander and Olympian Heather Moyse of Summerside who was on board the Canada C3 expedition for Leg 8 through the Northwest Passage to help commemorate our country’s 150th birthday. This journey began in Toronto, Ont. on June 1 and will end in Victoria, B.C., on Oct. 28, touching all three of Canada’s coasts. The voyage is divided into 15 legs and Leg 8 saw the ship sailing from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pond Inlet in Nunavut. The trip travelled north along the eastern coast of Baffin Island, the fifth largest island in the world. Crew members saw bowhead whales in Canada’s largest National Wildlife Area, observed spectacular glacial carved fiords and revisited Inuit whaling and an Arctic gold rush at Pond Inlet.