On Wednesday I went to Toronto to City Hall and had a fundraiser. While I was there we made about $320 and raised lots of awareness. I had a lot of fun while I was there also! Fiona, Alistair and his family came and helped. Fiona is the head fundraiser person for Camp Trillium and Alistair and his family go to Camp Trillium so it was really cool! Also Alistair and his wife both work for the City of Toronto so they knew a lot of people which helped a lot!
  After we were done at City Hall we went to Humber College to show my mom the sailboats and so she could meet some of the people. While we were there they offered to take us on one of the sailboats being used in my swim! It was SO much fun! I LOVE boating! We got to meet two of the crew coming from Humber so it was good!
I'm feeling a little bit better than a couple days ago. I went to the doctor and he said I have acid reflux. I got some medication that i have to take for a pretty long time but i should be 100% soon!
I'm still swimming and running a lot getting in lots of training! It's been going really good so far!

Yesterday my sisters got home from the Greenwood Hills camp near Gettysburg, Pa. in the U.S.! I haven't seen them in 2 weeks so it was nice. Today is my sister McKenna's birthday! My great grandma and grandpa Hayward came and had a fish dinner and then we had Chocolate Log for dessert! So I would just like to quickly say Happy Birthday to my "9" year old sister McKenna!   She's growing up so fast! :) Also Happy Birthday to Great Grandpa Hayward later this week!  Thanks for all the support and driving you do!  I also have to give a big thank you to Dave Scott and his family for having us at their house Saturday afternoon! My brother, cousin and I all had a great time kayaking with Liram!  Even with "Susie" in the kayak too!  It was fun to just relax for a change and have some fun hanging out with friends!
I haven't been feeling well so I took today and tomorrow morning off to rest.  I will be back in the water tomorrow afternoon though.  I went to see Dr. Bobby today because of my head and stomach aches.  Thanks for checking everything out so thoroughly! Anyways I have to get to sleep so I feel better! byee! :)

Yes, that's right, Larissa has been chosen as a Legislative Page too!!!!  How cool is that!!  Sisters getting to be Pages in the same year!! Way to go 'Ris!!!  And I get to go and see all my friends at the Legislature buildings during Larissa's orientation! 
SSO passed my trial swim, so now my lake crossing is completely sanctioned!  It's just a matter of wrapping everything up this next month...and raising a lot more money and awareness for Camp Trillium!
Dad and I went to Humber College Sailing and Powerboat Centre and made sure we had the boats and ramps and other stuff from there this week!  The are so nice!  I just can't believe how good people have been to me!
Lots more swimming this week and this morning I swam in Oakville from Coronation Park to the lighthouse and then another hour with the L.O.S.T. group!  I've been feel a bit sick the last few days and hopefully that will go away soon!  I keep pushing through it though!
I need some sleep because I get to go swimming in Port Dover with my cousin Lisa tomorrow!  I swam with her at Oakville today and it will be cool to swim with her in my "home" lake :)
Time to get some sleep!  I'm pretty tired! 

On Monday night I had a press conference and I would just like to make a short blog saying thanks to everybody who came out. I would like to thank Ross for being such an AMAZING spokes person! He did a great job! Also I would like to thank all of my crew for showing up! We had a great time like always! I would also like to thank all of my sponsors for coming out and all of my family members! My great grampa even got his car decorated with stickers on it like the one Kia has! He always tells me how proud he is of me! The car proved it even more! I was SO surprised when I saw his car Monday night! It's really nice! So, I'd like to thank my great grampa Hayward for decorating his car for me!! :) You will probably see it around town if you haven't already!

I had a great time at my coach's cottage! It was soo much fun! I went tubing, wakeboarding, and even cliff diving! I loved being outside for the whole day for everyday for a week! it was soo beautiful there I wish I had a cottage! It was AMAZING!  I practiced a lot and even did some night swimming! We had lots of fun while we were training! We made a lot of great memories! It was great! The night swimming was very relaxing and peaceful!  I liked it a lot! I did a few 10km swims and I did a 10km race yesterday at Camp Chikopi! I was the only girl that did it... it was nine guys and me! it was really fun though! All the boys were really nice! 
Today I did my trial swim at Grimsby and I did a 18km swim in 6 hours, including practicing feeding, I didn't feel tired after so it was good!  Actually I felt pretty good!  I saw lots of fish to today!  It was really cool!! I had a lot of fun with my crew again! They're all great people and really funny! Thanks everybody who came and helped today and I can't wait until the rest of the crew is there on August 17th!!! None of this would be happening without you! I'm also sure that this is the best crew ever put together for a Lake Ontario crossing!!!! :)  Oh, and thanks to my many partners who keep coming on board with sponsorships, donations and silent auction items!!!!

Had a great day at Giant Tiger in Simcoe today with the Simcoe Firefighters!  I believe we made a fair bit of money for Camp Trillium!  Thanks to the Firefighters and Giant Tiger and everyone who bought the "hot dog deal"!

Tomorrow morning (Sunday), our boat crew is doing a bit of a dry run!  It will be neat to see one of the zodiacs that Bridge Yacht in Port Dover has equiped us with and use it!  Should be cool to get a chance to see how we will be set up August 17-18!

After the practice tomorrow I am off to Coach Lisa's family's cottage with her and her family!  I can't wait!  It will be so cool to swim in Lake Joseph and also to get some relaxing time before the trial swim next Sunday!  On Saturday of next week I am racing in a 10 km race at Camp Chickopee too!  So, lotsa' swimmin' next weekend!  Anyhow, I'll be gone for a week and I'm not sure if I'll get to blog :(  Check in during the week and see if I get a chance!  Thanks everyone for supporting Camp Trillium and I!!!!!! 

It's late so I have to make this quick as I'm up early to go to the lake tomorrow.  This week we have had Minnows Camp at the Delhi pool with the younger kids it has been fun and I've been able to get some laps in too!  Today we fundraised at the Long point Eco Adventure!  It's cool how I'm getting to know so many of the workers there!  I had a great time and thanks for giving me the time to be there!  Next up, Simcoe's Giant Tiger Re-Opening celebration!  Come out and have a hot dog BBQed by the Simcoe Firefighters and come by and see me!  All donations and proceeds will go to Camp Trillium!

Yesterday was very exciting! I got to be in the Canada Day Parade in Port Dover and I was supported by Port Dover Kia! It was so cool! But I have to admit I was really nervous! I had to sit on top of the Soul and have my feet dangling through the sunroof  (Jack I hope my feet weren't too stinky!!) ! It was freaky, but I had a great day! And WOW was there ever a lot of people!!! I would like to thank all of my friends who came and helped: Sierra, Abi, Kristin and her friend Hailey, McKenna's friend Taylor (and her mom) , and all of my family members! Even my gramma and grampa Rowbottom from Tillsonburg came and helped! It was awsome! I would also like to thank all of the Kia members! They are amazing! Kelly and the crew there on Sunday were so nice! Thanks guys! It was funny going by all the swimmers and runners because they were all taking pictures and high fiving me! :P But even before all this I went for an hour swim (3KM) and a 6.5KM  run with my North Shore swim/run family! It was nice in the lake but it was super hot running! Everyone finished strong and did great! I also have to say everyone looked amazing in their red & white for Canada Day! After we went to Bill & Kate's (part of my swim/run family) and had breakfast together!  It was a lot of fun and the food was awesome!! Thanks Bill, Kate  and all the other runners!!!  It was fun! Also I got to go to the beach yesterday for fun! My mom had family there so we all got to hang out with my cousins it was really nice because we usually only see them on July 1!

I had another pretty good swim this morning! Not real fast, but steady. I got to swim with Madhu Nagaraja, who has previously swam the English Channel and is from India, and Colleen Shields, who has previously swam across Lake Ontario and will be attempting to become the oldest person to swim across the lake! Just a side note here, if Colleen's coach is picked to be a coach on the Canadian Paralympic team in London, England this summer, my coach, Lisa will accompany Colleen across the lake...neat, eh?! So this morning at 6am in Lake Ontario from Oakville, the youngest (me), the oldest (Colleen), and, in my opinion, the nicest and coolest (Madhu) swimmer set out for a 2 hour 'warm up' be for the L.O.S.T.'ies' showed up at 8am! It was awesome! Water temperature about 65 degree F. Calm for the first hour, but by the time I was done at 9am the waves were about a metre high! Absolutely PERFECT! I got almost 3 hours in the water (no wetsuit, of course, because that's "cheating", right Rob?) and covered 7.6km! I'm really starting to stretch things out a bit now! Tomorrow I swim with my North Shore "FAMILY" at 6am in Port Dover before we do our annual 5k Canada Day Classic run at 8am with any donation's being given to "Annaleise's Radical Crossing"! I also get to ride the Soul all spruced up for me thanks to Port Dover Kia, in the huge Canada Day parade in Dover! However, I'll have more to say about tomorrow's event's in the future!

Back tracking a bit, elementary school is now officially over for me and I'm now a high school student! It's summer! More of the beach and lake and closer to August 17th!!! Keep an eye out for my fundraisers in the area and in Toronto! Please give to Camp Trillium as part of my campaign! PLEASE help the kids and their families!!!! We are now over $20,000 raised toward the $30,000 goal, but I hope to raise much more! Anyhow, I hope to see as many of you as possible in Port Dover tomorrow!!! Happy Birthday CANADA!!!

Some people have asked me to post a copy of my Validictorian speech.  So, here it is.  I had an incredible time last night and a night to remember!  Thanks for the honour of speaking for our class guys!  I will miss all my friends at Walsh!

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go." Although it is pretty self-explanatory, I think Dr. Seuss hit the nail right on the head. For the past 10 years of our lives, we have been given information and knowledge and it is now time to put it to good use. Our teachers have equipped and prepared us. Education is a powerful weapon that can be used to change the world.   

       Mr. Matthys, teachers, family, friends and fellow graduates, today is a day to be thankful and to be inspired.

   Graduation is a time of reflecting on the past and looking onward to the future. It is a time that we, as graduates, get together for one last hurrah before moving on to bigger and better adventures. We are excited our last day of public school is over yet sad that we will be going to different schools next year! I remember walking these halls for the first time. We were all smaller and had to look up at the teachers, but now as we leave we are the same size as our teachers, or at least most of us are. We came here with much to learn and today we leave knowing it all. Right Mom?

      First of all we have so much to be thankful for. Here at Walsh Public School we have received a great education thanks to our teachers, volunteers and staff members. We are prepared to move on and to take whatever challenges come next in our lives.

   We can also be thankful for our families. Since the very first day of kindergarten our families have been supporting us! Helping with homework, volunteering, and packing our lunches, although sometimes when we were younger we were eager to do them ourselves! Now a days we all want our parents to pack them because it’s one less thing for us to do. Every day of our lives our families have encouraged us to “color outside the lines!” Other than when we were coloring a picture of course, then they would tell us to stay inside the lines! These past 10 years have presented us with a lot of ups and downs and it is good to know that we had our families in our corner, supporting us along the way! Thanks mom and dad. I would not be the person I am today, without you!

    Finally, we can be thankful for each other. We have been through so much together and have changed and grown together. The friendships that we have made here will last a lifetime. We have helped each other to survive and succeed these 10 years at Walsh. I hope we will continue to be there for each other and to support each other even as we leave for different high schools.

     I have learned many things at Walsh during these 10 years, starting with how to tie my shoes and write my name. But the thing I will remember the most is that friends are one of the most important things in our lives! No matter what, you always have friends supporting you and sticking up for you! I know that we have all had many problems in our lives but every time something happens we have our whole class on our side!

      I would like to quote a song that I think fits in well with graduation, “There's a world out there and I wanna be in it, I got a life and I'm gonna live it, don't tell me the sky's the limit, there's footprints on the moon, I wanna do my walkin' down the road less traveled, sew my dreams where they won't unravel, if you play it safe you won't get nowhere, I can't stay in here when there's a world out there” This is saying that you have to try new things and that you should never give up no matter what happens! You only have one life, live it well and happy!

     Often on graduation day we look outside for heroes but I see them right here among us. I have seen in my years at Walsh that we don’t have to look far for inspiration and that we each have the potential to make an inspiring contribution to others by being true to our values and committing ourselves to lofty goals! For example, Jordan Naggy is one of the strongest people I know! He has been through so much in his life and it’s so inspiring that he is here with us tonight! He is very kindhearted and always has a smile on his face! He’s inspired me to never give up and always try my hardest and I’m sure he’s inspired many other people. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it, if you can dream it, you can become it.

    We have made bonds between friends that will never be broken. We have made memories that will last a lifetime. As we end one glorious chapter of our lives, a new one begins. We have a fresh blank page ahead of us. It is up to us to grab our pens and write our own stories. I ask you class of 2012 to take this opportunity to write an unforgettable chapter filled with the fulfillment of your dreams and desires. Let us build on our experiences here at Walsh to better ourselves and others around us. There is a lot of power inside of us waiting to be unleashed. Getting a diploma tonight is not the end of graduation but rather the beginning of something special. It is the beginning of new adventures, new friendships and, most importantly, more amazing memories!

 Congratulations Class of 2012!