More of Our Canada – July 2019

CAUSE FOR APPLAUSE

‘Will Swim for Food’

Having raised $4,000 and 165 kilos of food last year

for his local food bank, this teenager has even bigger

plans for summer 2019 by Ryan Hann, Orangeville, Ont.

M

y name is Ryan and

I am a 13-year-old

competitive swimmer

with the Orangeville Otters

Swim Club. I train 13 hours

a week over the course of six

days, and take part in weekend

competitions from September

to June. In the summer of 2018,

during my break from swim-

ming, I created a campaign

called “Will Swim for Food.” I

swam 200 laps a day for a week,

a total of 35 kilometres, to raise

money and food for the Oran-

geville Food Bank. I was really

fortunate to have had a couple

of experiences that inspired me

to help my community.

In Grade 6, my teacher Mr.

Aldaine Hunt at The Maples

Academy gave our class a

project where we had to create a

fundraiser for a local charity.

The project was pretty intense

as we had to include marketing,

expenses and all the details

involved in organizing a fund-

raiser. I learned so much and

really enjoyed working on

this project.

In December 2017, my family

volunteered with the St. Vin-

cent de Paul Society and helped

sort Christmas hampers for

families that needed assistance

putting together a Christmas

dinner. It really made me aware

that people in my own commu-

nity need help, something I had

never thought about before.

These two experiences made

me want to do something to help

my community. It made sense to

me to contact our local food

bank because I eat a lot of food

with the amount of training

I do every week. It’s sad to think

that people go without food.

Some kids might not even have

enough food to do their best in

school, let alone do something

like swimming. This is when I

decided to use my passion for

swimming to help the Oran-

geville Food Bank. I picked

August for my swim week,

as that’s when I am off for

the summer from both school

and swimming, but it is also

a really slow time for the food

bank to get donations. Christ-

mas and Thanksgiving are the

most popular times of the year

for donations, but people need

food all year long.

My original goal was to

raise $500 and 100 food items.

Within three hours of an-

nouncing my campaign, I had

raised $530. I was over-

whelmed with the support

I received from my very

generous community. In the

Ryan will be joined at this year’s

fundraiser by his Orangeville

Otters Swim Club team members.

Right: Ryan is all smiles, doing

what he loves best—swimming

and helping others.

JEFF BOWEN

JEFF VOGAN, SPORTS DAD PHOTOGRAPHY

16 More of Our Canada JULY 2019