Carl Oake swims in the 1999 fundraiser.
By Susan Doran
‘Service above self’ is the creed of the Rotarians, and if there was ever a Rotary Club member who embraces this sentiment, it’s Carl Oake.
Oake, broker with Century 21 United Realty in Peterborough, Ont., has an admirably lengthy list of good works and community service awards. Over the years, these have run the gamut from Peterborough Citizen of the Year to the Easter Seals Society’s Helping Hands award. Oake has won so many civic and merit awards in fact, that when asked to elaborate on what each was for, he claims to have trouble recalling. He’s obviously a modest guy. For example, in the 1990s he was named senior male athlete of the year for the City of Peterborough, but he says he doesn’t understand why.
“The mayor called me about that one because of my swimming, I guess,” he says. “But I’m not really an athlete.”
Many people would beg to differ. Oake, 66, is the driving force behind a swimathon at the Peterborough YMCA that has raised more than $750,000 for local causes over the past 25 years. Currently, 75 per cent of the proceeds support Rotary projects and 25 per cent go to the Peterborough and District Easter Seals Society. Each year at the event Oake completes at least 100 laps doing the Australian crawl, having prepared by swimming regularly year-round.
This year’s annual Rotary/Carl Oake Swimathon will be held on Feb. 24 starting at 7 am.
Carl Oake
It’s non-competitive. The goal is to have fun and raise $50,000, says Oake. (Almost all of that goes to the causes, he adds.)
Every year at the swimathon, Oake – who used to be a jogger but took to the water after dislocating his knee – swims one lane of the 25-metre YMCA pool non-stop for an hour, while the teams of various local businesses each take short turns swimming in the other lanes that have been blocked off for the event. Pledges are donated for total laps completed by both Oake personally and the teams.
“The idea is that each team brings in at least $500 in pledges,” says Oake.
Local causes that have benefited from the funds raised over the years include the Five
Counties Children’s Foundation, the Peterborough Regional Health Centre and the YMCA.
Oake swam solo for the first few years of the event, after it began in 1987 at the suggestion of one of his fellow Rotary Club members. The event raised $4,000 that year and continued to grow. Oake brought in teams in the 1990s on the suggestion of the local newspaper – one of various local media providing coverage – which was clearly under the impression that watching someone swim endless laps was not exactly the height of excitement. (Oake’s friends were of the same opinion. He’d been told that “watching one guy swim lengths is like watching paint dry.”)
There’s no shortage of excitement at the event now, Oake says, citing as an example the extent that various teams will go to in order to win the award for wackiest outfits. (There are also awards for top corporate fundraiser and top individual fundraiser.)
“One year we had four guys dressed as reindeer swimming down the pool pulling Santa on a sleigh,” Oake says. “Last year we had a ‘Brazilian bobsled team’ running around with a raft.”
The swimathon attracted over 30 teams last year (there are four or five swimmers per team) and the hope is there’ll be more this year. Past participants have included the local real estate board, and another local real estate office, says Oake.
For the past 20 years, the child who’s the local Easter Seals ambassador has been in attendance at the swimathon. This year the ambassador is 10-year-old Mitchell McColl, who has been diagnosed with Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome, a rare condition that is similar to cerebral palsy. He has many physical challenges and uses a walker.
“Mitchell was the ambassador at last year’s swimathon as well,” says Oake. “At the media kickoff in January last year, he showed up wearing a cowboy hat, guns and a really thick pair of glasses. A local optometrist’s office called me and said that the glasses were too big for him and that they wanted to donate a new pair. So Mitchell’s mother was called. She said he doesn’t need glasses. He just insists on wearing those ones with the outfit – they’re safety goggles! That’s just Mitchell … but the optometrist ended up putting a team in the water.”
Oake in his office in 2007 (Photo by Brian Slemming)
The clerical work involved with the swimathon is punishing (collating pledge sheets, collecting money, so Oake was relieved when the local Rotary Club agreed to take over administration for the event several years back. Rotary Club of Peterborough’s Dan Shaw, who is event chairman for the swimathon, says he would like to see more corporate teams get involved.
Brian Martindale, an independent media liaison for the event (and a regular contributor to REM’s online story comments sections), takes that further. He used to work with Oake and deems him “a real gem of a human being.” Having observed the swimathon since its early years, Martindale has become so enthusiastic about it that he says he’s made it his personal mission to catapult the event to a national level next year. He’d like to see swim teams across the country joining forces to raise funds.
Attempting to get things rolling and drum up national coverage for the swimathon, Martindale recently drove into Toronto from Peterborough in order to drop press releases about the event off at a major television network. Somehow, he managed to talk his way past security and all the way to the office of the national news director, whose assistant exclaimed, “How did you get up here?”
Martindale got close, but he didn’t make it into the inner sanctum that day, although he hopes his press releases did.
“I’ll keep pushing,” he says.
Clearly, his pal Oake is a man who inspires loyalty.
Send donations to:
Rotary/Carl Oake Swimathon
P.O. Box 172
Peterborough, Ont.
K9J 6Y8
Or contact Oake directly at 705-743-4444; or Dan Shaw, Rotary Club of Peterborough, at: 705-745-1324, ext. 212. All donations over $20 will receive a tax receipt.
