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Swimmers
aren’t the only ones to fight rough water
Kingston Whig Standard
By Jack Chiang
August 13, 2003
My
friend John Munro’s swim across Lake Ontario – from Sackets Harbor,
N.Y., to Kingston – brings back many memories I have of his wife Vicki
Keith.
Vicki, as you know, swam her way into the Guinness Book of World Records
by doing a double-crossing of Lake Ontario as well as swimming across
all the Great Lakes in one summer.
She did all that in the 1980s.
Throughout her swims, The Whig-Standard spared no expense to provide
complete coverage – and a comedy of errors. Her double-crossing of
Lake Ontario – from Toronto to Port Dalhousie (now St. Catharines) and
back – made our lives particularly interesting.
Our reporter who was assigned to follow her in the official boat got
seasick shortly after departing from Toronto. We sent a second reporter
in a chartered boat to take her place. But the second reporter and his
boatsman got lost in Lake Ontario. Not only that, they ran out of
gasoline in the middle of nowhere.
We sent photographer Michael Lea in a chartered sea plane to pick up
photographer Ian MacAlpine’s film – Ian was accompanying Vicki in
the official boat. During their takeoff for the return trip, a cable
broke in the plane’s under-carriage because the water was so choppy.
Luckily, Michael and the pilot flew back to Toronto safe and sound.
Then Michael later found out that Ian gave him the wrong film.
Mobile phones were expensive to use in those days and our phone bill
came to over $2,000 for the three days. I could never understand why we
needed frequent updates – sometimes half a dozen an hour – from our
people on the scene. We published only once a day.
What was most memorable for me was a picture that I took of Vicki before
her first Lake Ontario swim. It was memorable because Ian held my feet
to prevent me from falling into the water.
I decided to do a special picture of Vicki before her historic swim.
Photographer Lisa Lowry got us in her 12-foot aluminum boat from
Sydenham. We headed for the Kingston Harbour in front of Confederation
Park because I wanted to have City Hall in the background.
An underwater camera housing cost over $2,000 in those days and we
couldn’t afford one. So I went to a pet store and bought a $20
aquarium. I put my camera in it to protect it from the splashing water.
The waves were five feet high that day.
Lisa guided her boat expertly so that it wouldn’t hit Vicki, who was
fighting the high waves to swim towards my camera. I leaned out of the
small boat to hold my camera in the aquarium. Ian grabbed my feet so
that I wouldn’t fall out. That was absolutely necessary because I
couldn’t swim.
After many attempts, we got our picture. It was not a perfect one,
because Vicki’s hands were not perfectly symmetrical. She was known as
Butterfly Vicki and she would have liked her hands in perfect positions
while doing her butterfly swim.
But it didn’t matter, because dozens of newspapers all over North
America published that picture.
It was the most widely published picture of her and I didn’t have to
get wet to get it.
Vicki’s first swim also sparked my interest in fundraising for worthy
causes. It came about by chance.
I was taking my first photo of her for The Whig when I learned that she
had to get up at 5 a.m. each day to teach swimming at Artillery Park.
She also had to teach at night. In between, she trained for her historic
swim.
She worked long hours each day. She should have quit coaching so that
she could train full-time.
That bothered me. When I got back to the paper, I talked to
Whig-Standard owner Michael Davies about it. Michael taught me how I
could raise money for Vicki: He said I should call 20 people and asked
for a donation of $200 from each of them. He donated the first $200
right then and there and he gave me some potential donors’ names.
I did as he suggested, with some success. I didn’t get money from
everybody I asked, but Vicki was able to quit her coaching job to train
full-time.
I’ve since been the chair or honorary chair of more than two dozen
fundraising campaigns, but the campaign for Vicki was the most memorable
one because it was my first.
And she also helped spark a local charity. Shortly after her successes,
Michael Davies helped found the Martello Society, a charity to assist
people with a lot of talent but not a lot of money. Michael cited Vicki
as one of those people.
The Martello Society has since become the Community Foundation of
Greater Kingston, one of our largest charities. All donations are
invested; only the interest is given out. What a great concept!
But I’m digressing. I hope John’s current crossing of Lake Ontario
goes swimmingly well.
Jack Chiang can be reached at 544-5000, ext. 210 or jchiang@thewhig.com
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