Diving Alumni Newsletter - January 2011

Best wishes to everyone for a happy, healthy, and peaceful 2011. I'm sure many of us have been thinking about Hui and the Diving community in Queensland AU (Brisbane) and hoping they are managing OK in all the flooding.

Check out Steve and Mary DePiero Carroll's daughter Sydney at www.tripleflip.ca. Go to Flip Girls, Saskatchewan Fall 2011, and then scan through seven (triple arrows) to find Sydney doing a handstand and click on her picture. A talent in the making! Speaking of Mary, she is trying to accumulate a SK alumni list and asks that all Saskatchewan alumni divers, parents, officials, and coaches send her their home/email address. Mary's address is marycarroll@sasktel.net

Janet Nutter wrote that her daughter Diane has been named by Canada-Snowboard as a member of the Canadian freestyle snowboard team at the 2011 FIS World Snowboard Championships to be held in La Molina, Spain, Jan. 14-22. To quote Janet - " She does both events but better at slope. Halfpipe is the event you see at the Olympics right now. They hope slope will be added to the Soshe program, probably a 99% chance it will get in. So slopestyle is.... 1 rail, then 3 jumps down the hill. The jumps at her level range from 30 to 65 ft. Normally a progression in size. They go over these doing various skills. i.e.- 1 twist, 1 1/2 twist, 2, etc. that's in our lingo, they have their own name for those skills. She's also learned an inverted skill a back side rodeo which may be ready for the worlds, we'll see. So in our terms a back flip with 1/2 twist. Just remember that's with a board tied to her feet & jumping 30 to 40 ft in the air. A couple of broken ankles & wrist later you can understand why mom gets nervous. We are really excited for her. I didn't realize until she became a high end competitor in a high risk sport how hard it is on the parents!!" Janet's husband, Chris Rudge, formerly the CEO of the COC, is now the Chairman & CEO of the 2012 Grey Cup Festival in Toronto.

And carrying on with the 'Daughter Theme', congratulations to Lindsay Hugenholtz who has been selected as one of the twenty Most Influential Women for 2010 by CAAWS, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport. Lindsay is the Deputy CEO of the 2011 Halifax Canada Winter Games to be held February 11 - 27.

Jason Napper is working as a technician for the Lac des Iles palladium mine owned by North American Palladium, 90 minutes north of Thunder Bay. " Lots of processes and sampling techniques to learn, and I'm actually getting paid to learn it!" Jason and Teri, and their two boys, still live on a farm in Geraldton and by all accounts (Jason's) he has also become quite the farmer, harvesting bales and bales and bales of hay in the fall. His 7 days on, 7 days off is a good schedule for the whole family.

Liz Jack wrote that she spent the Christmas holidays in Perth, Western Australia at her sister Catherine’s. Catherine's daughter was married on December 28 in Kings Park, and Liz was the Celebrant. She did the training earlier this year and this was her first wedding. It all went well and Liz had another one back in Tasmania on January 15, so her new hobby is going to keep her busy! In Australia, a Celebrant is a legally authorized conductor of weddings.

The news from Mary Anne (Edgeworth) Drinkwater is inspiring. Mary Anne took an early retirement from secondary school administration in June 2008 to pursue a fully-funded PhD offer from OISE/University of Toronto, in Theory & Policy Studies-Educational Administration. "I was also accepted into the collaborative program in Comparative, International & Development Education. I have combined these two areas in my doctoral thesis research project which is a comparative international case study on teachers understanding of their use of the arts in primary schools in the Maasai area of southern Kenya and in Ontario, Canada. Between September 2009 and August 2010, I spent an incredible 6 months living with the Maasai in a very rural & remote area of southern Kenya and doing my research in two of the schools there. In January, I will be completing the data collection in the Ontario primary schools. Then, on to the analysis, writing & defending! Has been a very interesting & rewarding shift in my life path! Am also in the process of building a school in one of the isolated Maasai communities, with the assistance of a Canadian NGO called CanAssistAfrica. At the present time, the students, some as young as 6 or 7 yrs old, have to walk almost 8 km each way to school (with the worry of lions, cheetahs, buffalo, elephant and hippos). When I arrived in the region last Fall, they had been suffering from a drought which had lasted almost 2 years and it was just tragic to see the devastation to their herds of cattle, sheep & goats!! Some of the families had lost 80-90% of their animals! If anyone is interested in checking out the work that they are doing in health & education in East Africa, visit www.canassistafrica.ca"

Mark Fromson wrote that he recently went down to Nicaragua for some surfing and met up with Grace Van Berkum, who is living the life teaching Yoga and Wellness in Central America and the Caribbean.

Joie Zeglinski and hubby Scott Spinney have had an extremely difficult year after their daughter Amy broke her leg playing soccer last May and it was discovered that she had bone cancer. A quick update this month said this " Amy is nearing the end of her chemotherapy treatment. So far she's doing well, no sign of tumour in her leg or elsewhere. Lots of physio to come (a minimum of 2 years to rebuild strength in her left leg). She'll be allowed to weight bear sometime in the spring. She was on CTV for the show "For the Love of Tiny Hearts" (hosted by Max Keeping and Kimothy Walker) and will also be with the CHEO Telethon in the spring. Besides Amy, our other 2 children are well. Ella just turned 5, Evan is 9. Evan is big on hockey, soccer and karate. Ella loves to sing, dance and do gymnastics. Scott and I are not working at this time in order to support Amy through her treatment. It has been a brutal 6 months. We're hoping for an easier time in 2011." Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Scott, and Amy, Joie, and we too hope all the best for your family this year.

A small tidbit - Heather Turner is Joie's aunt!

Barb Gorst Renaud is enjoying being Mom to baby Jordanna who will be 6 months old on Jan 16. Chris, Barb and Jordanna will be spending time with family in Palm Springs CA, Arizona, and in Vegas in March. Nice!!!

Congratulations to ..... Carolyn Anderson who is having a second child (another boy) due in April ..... Anne-Josée Dionne who just started a new job in December as the marketing director for the Marie Chouinard Company. It's a world-class contemporary dance company, so A-J is back in the artistic world, after working for the Cosmodôme (space camp) for almost two years. "I find it amazing to see the dancers perform, the control they have over their body is unbelievable, and on top of that they convey such emotions (I witness an amazing dress rehearsal yesterday). As you can see, I love my new job!" ..... Jacob Gamache, former DPC staff member, who was married last year and is expecting his first child this May ..... Dr. Saul Marks who has been named the Honorary Secretary of the FINA Sports Medicine Committee ..... Chantel Laforest who is the proud Mommy of a 10 month old little girl

Watch for Nationals coming your way in 2011 -

WSN London ON Feb. 3 - 6

Canada Cup Montreal QC Apr. 28 - May 1

SSN Edmonton AB June 2 - 5

Speedo Jr. Nats. Pointe Claire QC July 7 - 10

Join the Diving Plongeon Canada group on Facebook!

Yours in Diving!

Bev