Annaleise's Radical Crossing 2.0

Well, I think I am finally starting to feel a bit better after being sick for almost two weeks ! I still don’t have the strength (as my results at a swim meet in Ancaster, ON today show), but I am getting back into training! Thanks to Norfolk County, I’ve now been able to add between 2 to 4 hours of training a week an the Annaleise Carr Aquatic Centre (which still is awkward to say or write).

I wanted to write something quick tonight because it has been so long. We had our first Annaleise’s Radical Crossing 2.0 crew meeting last night at the Norfolk Public Library in Simcoe. What an awesome time and an awesome group!!! Today, one of my pacers, Jessica Vandenbussche, who biked across Ontario this past summer for mental heath and is the sister of former NHLer Ryan Vandenbussche, came over to talk over her duties as a pacer and just talk! We had a great time! I love Jess!!!

Happy Family Day weekend everyone!! I will be at the Delhi arena tomorrow morning from 8-10am to help raise funds for the Delhi Medical Centre Expansion and Lions Camp Dorset! So, come and see me! OR come an see me in Simcoe from noon to 3pm tomorrow when I’m working for Norfolk County at the Free Family Fun Event at the Simcoe Rec Centre/Annaleise Carr Aquatic Centre!

I also want to mention my new Facebook “Like” page! https://www.facebook.com/AnnaleisesRadicalCrossing2.0 Thanks to Kristen Jerry for her tireless work and we will keep that page up-to-date with videos and stories as we go! I can’t believe how crazy this is already! Next blog I’m going to tell you about musician Duane Rutter and the crazy thing he is going to do for Camp Trillium and I as part of my Radical Crossing 2.0 campaign!!!

Thanks so much for reading this, but I have to get some rest!! Write again soon!

Tonight I’m going to start with talking about my new book that’s coming out March 1st…less than a month!  I’ll be honest, the title Annaleise Carr: How I Conquered Lake Ontario to Help Kids Battling Cancer was not my idea.  I had a much different title, but as I’ve learned with this book, the publisher is the boss and you just trust them !  So how did the book come about?  Well, very shortly after my Lake Ontario swim I received an email from award winning author (I didn’t know that at the time) Deborah Ellis asking me if I would like help to write a book about my adventure.  Being as busy as I was doing speaking engagements and things for charities, I just didn’t have time or feel like writing a book right away.  In April of 2013 things started to slow a very little bit and I was ready to try this because I was afraid I would forget everything that happened.  I told my parents and they looked back through the emails for the email from Deborah Ellis and we contacted her after visiting her website.  She said she was still interested!  She had a plan and we loved it!!  So, I spent a few months going to Deborah’s home and just going over everything that happened.  I’m not too crazy about talking about myself, so I was very excited with including the struggle of Eric Thomas with cancer and paralleling that to my battling Lake Ontario!  Add to that the info we included about the incredible Marilyn Bell, who I can’t even imagine how she was feeling when she started off to do something no one else had ever done!!  I really do like how the book turned out!  Deborah Ellis is incredible, as those of you who have read her “Breadwinner” series would already know!  Thanks to Deborah and James Lorimer Publishing and thanks to everyone who helped me with this project so that it became a reality!  I hope you all get a chance to read it!

Now the website!  WOW!  I cannot believe the response!  Josh did such a great job and it’s sure to be our biggest tool in letting everyone know what’s up!!  Oh, and don’t forget to visit the “Donate” page !!

One last thing for tonight.  Actually I was home sick today so that wasn’t much fun . Feeling better now and nothing like a 5:30am practice tomorrow to help bring me along even more !  Last night though, I was honoured to be a guest at the Port Dover Lions meeting!  It was a great meal and I loved singing with them!  Yes, all the guys sang…and they are very good !  Anyhow, it was very fun to get to speak with them and share my story about my love for Camp Trillium and thank them for what they do for the camp!  They then pledged a donation of $2000 to my Radical Crossing which is amazing!!!  Thanks you Port Dover Lions and all the sponsors and donators to my “Radical Crossings”!  I could seriously not even think of this without you!!  Check out my “Partner & Sponsor” page to see who is already on board, and if you or your company is interested, I’d love to have you on board too!  The sponsor package is available on that web page for downloading!

Well, that’s enough of being a salesperson !  I appreciate everyone who reads these blogs and who is interested in my journey!  Next time I’ll start looking at my training a bit! Good night everyone!!

I can hardly believe it has been almost a year and a half since my team and I made it across Lake Ontario!  Yet at the same time it seems like forever ago!

I’m going to summarize the last year and a half as a whirlwind!  It’s been fun and I’ve learned so much about life and PUBLIC SPEAKING.  Meeting the people I have got to meet, including Prime Minister Harper and all the people in Ottawa who gave me a standing ovation in Parliament when I was invited there to get the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal for the Prime Minister himself. I’ve also met Elizabeth Manley, Walter Gretzky, Paul Henderson, Joe Carter, Devon White, Eddie Shack, Dennis Hull, Jeff Francis, Brutus “the Barber” Beefcake, Jerry Haworth, Damon Warner, Joe Bartoch, David Willsie, Bruce Cockburn, Victoria Duffield, Wendel Clark, and I even made NHL tough guy Darren McCarty cry !  There are sooooo many more people I’ve met it’s just crazy!!!  I had a day with the Toronto Maple Leafs, with James Reimer giving my brother Ayden and I one of his goalie sticks each, and being interviewed on the Leafs bench by Brooke Pashley in between periods in front of 20,000 people!  An evening with the Raptors meeting many of the guys in their change room and having a great chat on the bench with Jose Calderon only a few days before he was traded.  Raptors assistant coach, Jama, and ambassador, Jamaal Magloire, are two of the greatest guys I’ve ever met, and Jamaal is one of the tallest !  I met tons of Leaf alumni and players while I was the Honorary Ambassador for the Inaugural MLSE Team Up Challenge in support of Camp Trillium.   I’ve become good friends with His Honour, Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley and his wonderful wife, Ruth Ann, who is from my hometown of Simcoe.  Also with Shane Feldman, the founder and producer of “Count Me In Canada” and last year named one of the top 20 Canadians under 20 years old! Both Shane and His Honour were kind enough to come to Simcoe in August 2013 for the renaming of the Simcoe Rec Centre pool to the Annaleise Carr Aquatic Centre.

I travelled to Alberta, Miami, all over Ontario speaking and swimming in fundraising events, and to Ireland, to receive the 2012 World Open Water Swimming Association Woman of the Year award!

The greatest highlight, however, was getting to speak to my hero, Marilyn Bell-DiLascio, who without her, I would not have had this way to help the kids and families at Camp Trillium!

That leads me to Norfolk County!  This is my home and I love it!!  The County has treated me so great!  Renaming the pool, the parade, commemorative signs in Walsh and now they have partnered with me for this swim attempt across Lake Erie!  Landing in Norfolk is the most important thing for me as I want to swim home!!  The support of sponsors and people from here and all over has been more than overwhelming!

Why do this again!!!??? Camp Trillium!!!!!  For those of us who are blessed to not be affected by childhood cancer, we have no idea what these people go through!  “Until there is a cure, there is Camp Trillium.”  It’s a saying I hear over and over!!  There is no doubt that life isn’t fair, specifically for a lot of kids in this world!  When we can help people in need it is such an HONOUR!!!

As you can see in the logo for this swim, the AC looks like a drop of water.  A drop of water by itself can seem small, like me, and even insignificant.   But what happens when you put a drop of water into a puddle or lake?  When you put a drop of water into a lake ripples form.  Then this one drop becomes significant because of that ripple it creates and as the ripple spreads out farther and farther the rings that form.  This happens in our lives too.  Each of us touches the lives of those around us.  Just like when I swam across Lake Ontario for Camp Trillium, and this is my goal with swimming across Lake Erie too.  Having the honour to touch other’s lives is such a wonderful thing!

I‘d like to invite you to partner with my team and I on this journey and form one, or many, of those rings.

Well that’s enough for a first blog…or an essay for JP !  I’ll touch on my book and the wonderful Deborah Ellis in my coming blogs!!  Good night for now!