Swimming the LENGTH of Lake Ontario!!!

By Eamonn Maher

Staff writer

Local resident Colleen Shields is going to take another run at crossing Lake Ontario this summer, except this time she’s approaching it from a different angle.

And the 61-year-old won’t be swimming alone in an attempt that’s never been completed before – crossing the late horizontally – a treacherous 305-km trek from Kingston to Burlington.

Shields, who stands as the oldest woman to cross Lake Ontario from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto, will embark from Kingston on July 23 as part of a five-woman relay team that is raising money in support of Plan International’s “Because I am a Girl” campaign.

Joining Shields are three other women who’ve successfully crossed Lake Ontario before, 47-year-old Nicole Mallette of Hamilton, Samantha Whiteside, 23, from New Hamburg and Markham teenager Rebekah Boscariol and another 18-year-old, Mona Sharari, of Richmond Hill, who conquered the English Channel last summer.

Shields said someone came up with the idea for the relay fundraiser after her attempt to make the 51-km crossing of Lake Ontario last September came up about 10 kms short of the finish line at Toronto’s Marilyn Bell Park. She successfully crossed the lake in 1990 and 2006.

 (above: the finish of Nicole Mallette’s Lake O Crossing in 1997)

“We’re all very aware about how difficult this is going to be but we’re all excited because nobody has done it before,” said Shields, a Mississauga-based travel agent.

“We’re checking with the Guinness Book of World Records to see if this is qualifies as the longest open water swim. We still have some things to put together, like looking for boats that will accompany us during the swim and if we could find a houseboat, that would be awesome. We’re calling it Because Girls Can and I think that the Because I’m a Girl movement is a wonderful organization and a great charity. We’re aiming to raise well over $100,000 and I think we can do it with corporate sponsorships and other donations.”

The women have set up a Facebook page called Because Girls Can Relay to provide updates and more information leading up to the event.