Sports and leisure 2017
Outdoor pursuits and healthy competition along with elite organized sports are rising steadily in the area. In 2017 more people were exposed to new options. As well, the hard work of training for those engaged in organized sport was clearly demonstrated by trophies and medals that some athletes brought home. Looking back, these events are but a few that marked an exiting year with promises for continued engagement.
Tour de Lac-brome drew more participants and their companions than the population of TBL itself. A groundswell of enthusiastic runners with their dogs in the cani-cross events has become a popular feature of the weekend extravaganza of myriad competitions for adults and youth including the famous run around Brome Lake. Aviron Knowlton Rowing athletes’ training “til the water is no longer liquid” paid off when members of the new club came home from Canada Games in Winnipeg, the Royal Henley Regatta in Ontario, the Nationals and Canada Cup in Burnaby, BC, having landed in podium finishes at each. The Aviron Knowlton Rowing club is not simply for the elite athletes. It is their hope to make available rowing sculls for people to learn about the sport from. The TBL Thrashers trashed the regional soccer finals with gold medals for each of the four teams that participated.
Last winter the ASF (Adapted Sports Foundation) was not only based at Owl’s Head. Its mobile unit went to Mont St. Bruno on the South Shore as well as Mont Chanteclair in the Laurentians. In total the program served 74 students Runners of the Tour de Lac Brome burst out of the start gate located in the Lions Park in Knowlton last June.
that included 12 wounded soldiers. Taking it to another level, the organization worked hard over the summer to ensure the establishment of an elite adapted ski program based at Bromont. Kelly Bush, assistant coordinator of the organization, says that, “The Elite Program is the next step in the adaptive ski program. It was designed to allow participants from our Owls Head program, who have mastered the ability to ski on their own, the chance to further practice their skills with trained coaches. The end goal being to ensure the ability of the skiers is at a comfort level allowing them to ski on their own or with friends and family. As well this winter the mobile unit has
plans to be located again at Chantecler, Mont Saint-bruno and also, Mont Orford, Mont Gleason, and Mont Sainte-anne. There are over 100 volunteers making sure to see that all these events are well supported.”
Marc Pelletier’s “Amis de sentiers Lacbrome” focused on land activities for a membership of 116 individuals seeking camaraderie while hiking with 46 outings in 2017. He reports that already in 2018, with the partnership of “Club de la Bonne Humeur,” membership has jumped by 12 per cent. Pelletier also engaged himself in a personal initiative by partnering with the Knowlton Optimist Club and the TBL Community Services. With their support along with some private donations to purchase 30 lifejackets he was able to offer 120 students from the two TBL elementary schools instruction in canoeing by a certified instructor. The activities took place at Douglass Beach. Pelletier executed another personal initiative with volunteers from Amis des sentiers and Club de la Bonne Humeur to accompany students and teachers on nature walks.
TBL ramped up activities based from Douglass Beach by offering rentals of kayaks during the summer season, hosting a polar bear party in mid-winter.
More and more people are using the frozen lake as their winter playground. On any given day one can see lots of fishing huts, kite-skiers, kite-boarders, crosscountry skiers, and snowshoers, not to mention the snowmobilers. TBL has made available for rent kick sleds for this 2018 season and are welcoming people to give it a try. The town has arranged for a large skating oval at the beach to be maintained. An open fireplace has been positioned on the beach for outdoor enthusiasts to warm up with. Plans for the
In the very first section entitled “The Homelessness of Man” (it was published in 1910) Part 1- The Medical Mistake. He writes
We say “if only we didn’t have this or that social evil” but then the hard part beginsimagining and implementing a new and different way of being without using instruments that themselves become social evils.
It is all very well to say “Imagine there’s no heaven, no religion, no heaven and hell” but we conveniently forget that humanity has tried that. One hundred years ago, October 1917 hailed the new Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and Communism was going to be the saviour of humanity and 100 million people are now dead in Russia, China, Cambodia, North Korea, etc..
Is there anyone or anyway to change our world, to change ourselves to envision and then implement what is right? Stay Tuned.
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second annual polar bear party are in the making because last year’s was such a success. Stay tuned.
The first TBL polar beach party was inaugurated at Douglass Beach with the skating oval on the lake as well as on land activities too. It was such a hit that it will be a recurring feature offered by the town. The lake becomes a community of sports enthusiasts with snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, kite skiing and boarding, and lots of fishing — an added feature to the Douglass Beach activities this year
Taking advantage of the high water on the Missisquoi River North in early summer, the folks at Eastman hosted their third annual Missisquoi Challenge, a timed paddle starting in Eastman and finishing before the falls at Bolton Spa in Bolton Centre. Participation doubled in 2017 from the year before and it is anticipated that the organizers may end up with two events in the same day as popularity increases.