Count Her In Sports continues to open doors and raise funds for female athletes locally.
On Saturday, June 21, an afternoon fundraiser was held at Pelee Island Winery with guest speaker Canadian Paralympic Swimming Gold Medalist Danielle Campo.
The event helped the organization raise $31,000 last year to aid in keeping girls in sports and providing them with the resources needed.
Count Her In Sports founder Kara Murray hoped to surpass that number this year when all funds from the event are tallied.
The highlights of the evening included live music, food, family activities and games, an awards ceremony, door prizes, raffles and more.
Three-time Paralympic gold medalist, world record holder, celebrated speaker, author and coach Danielle Campo highlighted her life and her Olympic journey to a crowd of eager young athletes and parents in attendance.
She said after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at a very young age, she found her love for swimming while learning to build her muscles in the pool.
“As a family we choose to focus on the things I can do, and not on the things I can’t do,” she told the crowd.
After hours of physiotherapy and agony, one of her physiotherapists suggested she try the exercises in the water, she said. And that was a game changer for her — in the water she could be fast.
She developed a competitive spirit and the birth of an Olympic dream.
That opened up a new world for her, one where she would earn a total of 17 Paralympic and world medals when she retired from competition in 2006.
“As a young athlete, I never knew that I was building the tools I would one day need to survive,” she said.
Those same skills she used to build strength and persevere in competition were now the skills she needed when she found herself fighting for her life a few years ago after giving birth to her daughter and developing a severe sepsis infection.
Campo shares the story in her memoir, “Resurrections: My Will to Survive is Olympian.”
Several awards were also given out at the event to local top athletes for their achievements in sports: Alex Dominato, Coach of the Year; April Quimby, Perseverance Award; Gemma Melo, Rising Star Award; Emmersyn Jadischke, Count Her In Sports Legacy Award; Hayden Kovac, Teammate of the Year and Team of the Year Award: Lakeshore U11 Girls – The Do Good Girls.
For more information on Count Her In Sports visit countherinsports.com.
Canadian Paralympic Swimming gold medalist Danielle Campo shares her story with a group of young athletes at the Count Her In Sports event held at Pelee Island Winery Saturday night.
SUN photo by Deanna Bertrand
Indie Williamson, 8, Kingsville poses with Olympic Champion Danielle Campo.
SUN photo by Deanna Bertrand
Plenty of fun was had by all in attendance. Eight-year-old Shae Lowrie tried on costumes in the photo booth.
SUN photo by Deanna Bertrand
Avery Dunn, 14, and Mackenna Krushelniski, 14, with softball cookies from Crumbs.
SUN photo by Deanna Bertrand
