Thanks GTA WheelChair And Scooter Service

Thanks GTA
WheelChair and
Scooter Service
2011 Active Living Conference
Issue 67 December 2011
Variety Village would like to
thank GTA Wheelchair and
Scooter Service for conducting a
free seminar on wheelchair and
scooter maintenance.
GTA Wheelchair and Scooter
Service will hopefully be back
during the spring to conduct
another maintenance session.
Thanks to Roger St. Clair for
conducting the session and
giving our members some much
needed information on the
proper care and maintenance of
their mobility devices.
The Active Living Conference held at VarietyVillage on Friday, November 4 was a great success. The audience was
intrigued by guest speakers Dave Schaller, Tracy Schmitt and special guest Rick Hansen!
The event, hosted by Jeff Tiessen was a fantastic day of sharing, learning and networking. Hope to see you next year.
Rick Hansen Celebration!
Rick Hansen rolled into Dundas
Square with final relay medal
bearer, Variety Village's Tracey
Ferguson, on Saturday,
November 5 to cheering crowds
and special guest greeters, MP
Bal Gosal, The Lieutenant
Governor of Ontario, David Onley and Her Honour, Mrs. Ruth Ann
Onley and Councillor Gary Crawford. The entertainment including
Justin Hines and Shawn Desman, along with circus performers and
dance troupes was amazing. It was a great end of relay celebration day
for the City of Toronto and Variety Village.
Give the Gift of Fitness
This Holiday Season
What better way to tell
someone you love
them than to give them
a gift that will extend
and improve their life.
For a limited time,
Variety Village will be
offering one month gift
certificates that may be
purchased and given to friends and family
at a special promotional price. For only $50
for an individual or $100 for a family, you
can give the gift of long life and happiness
to your friends and family.
Gift Certificates will be available in the
Membership Services office located behind
the Reception desk. For more information,
please call Bobby Bonner at 416-699-7167
Ext 246 or email
bbonner@varietyvillage.on.ca
Village Person of the Month
Lindsay Walker
Variety Village
enjoys a history of
athletic excellence.
Our athletic
success is only as
good as the
coaches who work
with our athletes.
This month we’d
like to feature one
of our fantastic
coaches, Lindsay
Walker.
Lindsay began working for Variety Village in September
of 2009 as one of our Aquatics Staff. Shortly after joining
our staff team, Lindsay’s ability as a swim coach was
discovered and she was quickly matched up as a coach
for our famous Sunshine Swim Team for swimmers with
cognitive disabilities.
Lindsay was part of a swim club in Scarborough at a
very early age. She spent years learning the ins and outs
of competitive swimming and the proper coaching of
young swimmers. At various swim meets, Lindsay
was introduced to swimmers with disabilities and knew
that she wanted to teach and coach kids with special
needs.
Lindsay’s hard work recently paid off as she has been
named one of the coaches for Special Olympics in
Ontario who will be competing in Kingston this year for
the Special Olympics Provincials.
Lindsay hopes to take this relationship with Special
Olympics further and work more behind the scenes on
different events.
As if this wasn’t enough, this hard working mother of two
also enjoys putting her own physical abilities to the
challenge and completed her first triathalon this year.
We’re sure there will be many more to come.
Facility Access Notices
December 9-Fieldhouse in use from 6pm-close for setup
for Christmas Parties
December 10-11-Variety Village closed for Firefighters
Christmas Party and World’s Greatest Christmas Party
December 24 & 31-Variety Village open from 7am-2pm
December 25-26-Variety Village closed for Christmas
and Boxing Day
January 1, 2012-Variety Village closed for New Years
Day
Stephen Jesso Wins CPU
National Powerlifting Championships
Picture
Courtesy of
The Toronto
Observer
Stephen Jesso once again astounded the powerlifting
community by winning the 2011 Canadian Powerlifting
Union Nationals in St. John’s Newfoundland.
Visit http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2011/11/27/meetstephen-jesso-husband-powerlifting-champion-and-blindathlete/ for the full story
Variety Village Heroes!
Cardiac emergencies
are a terrifying thing to
think about. They can
strike anyone,
anywhere, anytime.
The difference
between surviving one
of these emergencies
and not surviving is the
presence of trained
lifesavers like Avinash Sudama and Behzad Enayat.
Avi and Behzad came into work Friday evening expecting it to
be just another day at the Village. Not tonight! Behzad
witnessed a member collapse on the basketball court and
quickly sprang into action. Grabbing all of the lifesaving
equipment that he could carry, Behzad rushed to aid the
member. Quickly assessing that the member was in severe
distress, Behzad radioed for backup from his coworker, Avi, who
sprinted to the scene to assist. After initiating CPR immediately
and applying the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) the
member was given life saving electic shocks from the machine,
which quickly restored his normal heartbeat. Avi and Behzad
continued to provide care until paramedics could arrive and
escort the member to a nearby hospital where he could receive
additional medical attention.
The member survived and was recently discharged from
hospital. Doctors informed Variety Village that had Behzad and
Avi not been so quick to act and apply proper treatment, this
person would not have survived their cardiac emergency.
It wasn’t just another day at the Village for Avi and Behzad but
when a member needed their help they didn’t hesitate and
sprung into action to save a man’s life. Congratulations Avi and
Behzad you are heroes.
The Sports Page
VV Powerlifters Dominate World Raw
Powerlifting Championships
Members of the Variety
Village Powerlifting team
joined fellow Canadian
Powerlifters to compete in
the 100% Raw Powerlifting
World Championships in
Orlando, Florida. Raw
powerlifting is a discipline
of powerlifting that does
From left to right Kevin Weis, Benjamin
not allow the use of
Butty, Frank Butty, Barry McEvoy, Kent
assistive gear such as
Maraj, Dave Elder and Murray Anderson
bench shirts, squat suits or
knee wraps. It is also a federation dedicated to keeping the
sport drug-free and does extensive anti-doping testing. Team
Canada dominated the event with a total of four first place
finishes in the open age class of the weight categories, six first
place finishes in the age class categories of the various weight
categories, and three third place finishes for the open age class
of the weight categories. The athletes smashed the current
Canadian records and even took some World records home with
them. The Canadian team finished as the second best team in
the competition. Variety Village is proud of all of our lifters along
with the other fellow Canucks that joined them representing our
country on the World stage.
Flames Swim Team Spookfest Results
Toronto Open Tae Kwon Do
Tournament Results
Variety Village was once again
the host for the Toronto Open
Tae-Kwon-Do Tournament. Over
900 competitors came out to
compete from all over Canada
and the U.S.A. Variety Village
was represented by an amazing
50 competitors and showed
some amazing results.
Charlotte McAffee-Brunner-first
in sparring and showed excellent
spirit
Hocine Boudhar- first in
sparring and patterns
Keegan Williams-Lennox- first in sparring and
patterns
Alex Perkins-Marini and Summer Noble from
Variety Village fought each other in the gold medal
match, and showed very strong, with Alex coming
out on top.
Ryan Clarke-second in poomsae and showed
much improvement.
Sarah Monaghan-Chow came 2nd in poomsae
and did very well.
Sarah Reeves showed her wheelchair Koryo
(zero mistakes!) and her staff kibon (also perfect!)
The special needs division showed
great independence and strength in their patterns,
and did an excellent job teaming up to defeat
Master Cabanatan in sparring.
Drew Perkins-Marini was injured in sparring, but
had an excellent comeback, and won first.
Rennie McBurnie won first in patterns, and won
first in sparring by a body shot knockout.
Here is a message from Coach Cori about our Flames Swim
Team’s latest triumph...
The Flames attended another successful meet this weekend in
Scarborough. The camaraderie and sportsmanship on deck
from our team was infectious. A special congratulations to
Caitlin Allain who survived her first meet as a coach! She
jumped right in and became a valued member of the team.
Caitlin is fast becoming a mentor and advisor to our swimmers.
It’s great to have her out there with us! Pictures from the meet
can be found on the Flames bulletin board in Aquatics. Check
out some of our swimmers’ results...
• Emily Coughlan – 3/3 best times. With an amazing 14 second drop in the 100 back and a 10.5 second drop in the
200 IM. Emily said “I like the 200 IM because everyone else gets tired and I don’t” – Great attitude Emily! Erin
Coughlin – 13.26 second drop in the 25 breast (her previous best was set only 2 weeks ago)!
• Uwe Hahnewald qualified (again) for CAN AMs in the 50 free. Great improvement after only 2 weeks Uwe!
• Tanner LaBelle took 17 seconds off his 100 back. Quite an improvement!
• Dean had a great 2nd meet with 3 best times, totaling over 35 seconds in improvement
• Alex Marlet had a great meet. Last year he swam 2 lengths in 7 minutes. On Saturday he swam the 25 back in
1:08 seconds and the 50 freestyle in only 2:36! Wow Alex! All your “good pain” is paying off
• Lina Sander had 1 new time and 1 best time. Lina is really getting into the swim of things!!
• Ashley Tinney dropped almost 15 seconds in the 100 back and had 2/3 best times
See you on Deck,
Cori