This note from Richard Cormier is a good way to begin:

Bonjour à vous, Que dire sinon félicitations les plus chaleureuses à Alexandre et Emily pour leur fantastique performance. Ils ont démontrés un calme "olympien" pour produire de la sorte et ils méritent toute l'admiration possible.

Further congratulations to the entire Olympic team: athletes, coaches, officials, and Sylvie Bernier, Canadian Chef de Mission, for a great job. You made us VERY proud!

This summer Mike Medved made a big move to Singapore where he is teaching at the Singapore American School and following other pursuits. By all written accounts it sounds like he is enjoying himself

Kelly (Harber) Hause wrote that she is still lives in Thompson, Manitoba, although at some point she and her husband Darryl would like to re-locate to the “real” world. After Darryl spent from June, 2007 to July 4, 2008 in Toronto for work, they both realize that there are so many other opportunities out there. Their 14 year old daughter Kaylyn (1993) fell in love with Toronto when the family visited Darryl and is determined to have them move there some day. Their 12 year old son Matthew (1995) could care less where they live as long as he can golf, curl, play soccer and football. Unfortunately, diving won’t be in either one of the kids future as they both lean more toward outdoor activities, MSN and Guitar Hero. Kelly is working as an Administrative Assistant at the local college and was recently elected to the School Board of Trustees. She has also started her own home based business, and is hoping that it will grow enough to replace her present full-time job. Kelly still curls and plays golf, but finds herself often thinking about getting back into the pool and getting the Thompson Diving Club back up and running. She just has to find some time in her busy life to do that.

A quick note from Scott Stevenson indicated that life in the Stevenson household is busy as usual...school (3 different schools this year!), hockey, Ringette, cross country...and Jenny, his oldest, started Learn to Dive this year and loves it!! Scott, as the Director of Sport for the Commonwealth Games Association of Canada, was on his way to India in early October for the lll Commonwealth Youth Games.

Word from Melissa DeRyckere Downer is that she is trying to start coaching LTD in Bracebridge at the new sportsplex, but is having difficulty with NCCP finding her Level II Technical, Practical and Theory records. Good luck with that, Melissa!

Kate Millhausen Ball sent great news from Squamish. “It's been a busy year. First of all I studied and passed my Royal College exams for Orthopedic Surgery while chasing my 20 month old and while 8 months pregnant with our second. Thank goodness for a supportive husband! Lucas Alexander Ball was born on Aug 13th. I'm taking a short mat leave of 3.5 months because I still owe the ortho program 4 weeks of work before they'll officially say I'm done. Then, in January we're off to Sydney Australia for a 6 month fellowship in Sports (mainly shoulder and knee arthroscopy) I'm coming back to do another 6 months in foot and ankle surgery, then I'll finally start practice wherever I can find a job! Congratulations, Kate, and good luck!

Mary Anne Edgeworth Drinkwater wrote that she took an 'early retirement' in June & received a fully-funded offer to begin her PhD in education at OISE/UT. Mary Anne has three children in university, one in college & one in his last year of high school, is still living in Kingston, but doing the VIA commuter routine back & forth a couple times a week to TO. She is enjoying closer connections again with Saul Marks.

Liz Jack celebrated her 50th birthday in June. Liz treated herself and the girls to a trip to Indonesia to visit her sister and her family just before her birthday, and had a quiet day at home with family members on the day. Congratulations Liz! I bet a lot of people are saying “How can she be 50??”

It was great to have a long letter from Megan Gordon Parker who is living with her family in a town called Burlingame - 25 min south of San Francisco. And it's also only 20 min from Palo Alto where Paige's family lives. Mike just got his US Passport and they officially filed for their green cards which means they are planning to stay a while.

Madeleine is loving kindergarten, is "all girl" and loves animals and drawing. She is still swimming and doing gymnastics 3hrs/wk and just finished her 8 week soccer season as the top and only goal scorer on her team! She loved soccer and wants to continue to play, but there is no year-round league there so now she wants to play hockey!! Unfortunately, there is no hockey for her age so skating was suggested, to which she replied, "Mom, I already know HOW to skate!" So now they are looking into Karate.

Kieran loves preschool and is also swimming and doing gymnastics once a week. He's outgoing, flirts with the girls and is very protective of Maddy! He's also "all boy", and is totally into pirates, Power Rangers, Star Wars, super heros, guns and swords...”it can be exhausting!”

Just recently Megan sent word that Kristin Wingfield became engaged to Dana Williams. Congratulations to them! Dana was a World Cup Canadian ski team racer 1997-2000 and was the first male skier from the Maritimes to make the Cdn National ski team. (he was born and grew up in Halifax). (Ed. Note from Halifax – he must be a GREAT guy!) Dana now has a company that arranges luxury ski and golf vacations (www.bestofboth.ca) to sought-after events and destinations such as the Kitzbuhel Hahnenkamm World Cup Ski Race and the Masters Golf Tournament, as well as corporate events in Whistler. He currently races road bikes so naturally, they spend lots of time biking and skiing together! They are planning a July '09 wedding in either Vancouver or Whistle, and Megan will be the Matron of Honour.

Congratulations to ….. Kirsten Sheppard who gave birth to her first child, Alexander Sheppard Patterson, on July 16th in Knoxville, TN. Kirsten is still living in the USA with her husband and son, and working as Director of International Education at Maryville College ….. Tony Revitt and his wife Jolene on the birth of their daughter Brooke Emily Harvey Revitt born Oct 2, 2008 ….. Jeff Liberty and his wife Nicole celebrated the birth of their second little girl on Oct/04/2008, Kallie Taylor Rae Liberty ….. Annie Pelletier who will be inducted into the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame at the Casino de Montréal today, Monday November 24, 2008 ….. Jennifer Williams on the birth of her first child, Zackary ….. Michelle Rosenitsch Tobin who welcomed her 2nd child, a little boy, Oliver, on November 3 ….. Kim Zieman who is expecting her 3rd child ….. Aaron Dziver, new CAMO Head Coach.

And this from the Diving website ….

“On September 29, Diving Plongeon Canada (DPC) was pleased to announce that world-renowned coach, Michel Larouche, of Laval, Quebec, has accepted the position of Head Coach, effective today. In this new role, Michel will be responsible for the development and enhancement of high performance coaching expertise in Canadian diving. “We are exceptionally pleased to be welcoming Michel to the technical leadership team at DPC,” says chief technical officer Mitch Geller. “He possesses one of the top diving minds in the world, and his knowledge and experience in the sport at the international level are unparalleled.” Michel will continue to be based in Montreal but will work with coaches across the country”.
Congratulations Michel! How well deserved!

In closing, I’d like to extend my thanks to Donald Dion who pointed out that CADA or Diving Plongeon Canada is celebrating its 40th Anniversary on November 25, 2008.

“CADA and all its members should be very proud about CADA's achievements over the past 40 years and warmly thankful to Mr Vaughan Baird, the visionary man (courageous, passionate, dedicated ...) If diving was able to reach its full potential its because we had great leaders …. and we still have great leaders. Many thanks to all of you.” quote Donald.

If I wait long enough, the news will come!!!! Happy holidays! Bev