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Fanshawe Student on a Quest for Gold!
Karen Blachford to represent Canada at 2004 World
Wheelchair Curling Championships in Switzerland
Karen Blachford has always loved sports and has been very active and
involved starting from a young age. Acquiring a physical disability in her
early twenties hasn’t been able to stop her or even slow her down. In fact,
it has done just the opposite. She has taken the sports world by storm and
there is no end in sight.
Karen left her job at the Student Development Centre at The University of
Western Ontario in 1999 to pursue her goal of working in the world of sports
and fitness. She was accepted into the Fitness and Health Promotion program
here at Fanshawe for the fall term of 1999 and eagerly began the program. At
the same time Karen’s athletic involvement continued and was beginning to
soar beyond her wildest dreams.
The only female team member, Karen’s team members include: Skip, Chris Daw;
Vice-Skip and coach, Bruce McAninch; and Second, Jim Primavera. As Team
Canada this foursome has been very successful worldwide. Their titles have
included Silver Medallist at the first World Championships in 2002, Gold
Medallist at the 2003 Can-Am Championship, Gold Medallist at the 2003 World
Cup of Wheelchair Curling, and most recently they successfully defended
their title as Team Canada, winning the Canadian National Wheelchair Curling
Championship in Toronto last November. This latest victory qualifies them to
represent Canada again at the 2004 World Championships being held in
Switzerland. The team is making final training preparations and left
on January 16th.
Karen remains a part time student in the Fitness and Health Promotion
program and is near to completion. When she began the program, she hadn’t
planned on becoming a nationally and internationally ranked athlete. The
team is hoping to represent Canada at the 2006 Paralympics in Italy. Her
training for curling is a full time job that consumes much of her time, so
she has been doing much of her course work through independent study. The
professors that Karen has studied under in the Fitness and Health Promotion
program over the last few years have been extremely supportive as Karen
travels frequently with the team within Canada, the United States and
Europe.
Program coordinator Tracy Gedies was aware of Karen’s increasing
advancement, travel and the lack of funding and decided to bring the issue
up at a Student Steering Committee meeting to find out if the students would
be interested in getting involved. Tracy is a firm believer in recognizing
people’s accomplishments. The students on the committee found Karen to be a
dynamic person, and decided that this was a cause they wanted to support.
They wanted to give back. "I am part of the group and coordinator of the
program, but I don’t have a vote, it is the students who make the
decisions," Gedies states as a key factor.
The students came together to successfully raise $500.00 to donate to the
"Karen Blachford Wheelchair Fund," which will aid Karen in the purchase of a
new wheelchair with the remaining money to go towards the team. When Karen
represents Canada here at home and overseas, she says she "carries the
Fitness and Health Promotion program and Fanshawe College close to her
heart." With the support of Fanshawe College, Karen is following her dream
to become qualified to work in the world of sports and fitness for those
with special needs as well as making history in the world of wheelchair
curling!
Go Canada Go!
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