Soldier On Sports Recovery/Rehabilitation Fund

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CANFORGEN 206/08 CMP 087/08 041334Z NOV 08
SOLDIER ON FITNESS AND SPORTS CAMP
UNCLASSIFIED



THE CF WILL CONDUCT A SOLDIER ON FITNESS AND SPORT CAMP FROM 1 TO 5 DEC 08 AT CFB KINGSTON. THE CAMP IS FOR SERVING INJURED SERVICE MEMBERS, WHO HAVE UNDERGONE AN AMPUTATION, HAVE A SPINAL CORD INJURY, ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED OR HAVE ANOTHER FORM OF PERMANENT DISABILITY


THE OBJECTIVE OF THE CAMP IS TO PROVIDE INJURED SOLDIERS WITH PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE IN PHYSICAL FITNESS AND SPORT PROGRAMS. PHYSICAL FITNESS TRAINING AND SPORT HAVE BEEN SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO CONTRIBUTE TO GREATER LEVELS OF STRENGTH, CARDIO RESPIRATORY FITNESS, AGILITY, BALANCE AND COORDINATION, ALL OF WHICH WILL CONTRIBUTE TO OPTIMIZING THE FUNCTIONAL INDEPENDENCE OF INJURED SOLDIERS


COMMANDING OFFICERS ARE REQUESTED TO FORWARD THE NAMES OF INTERESTED INJURED SOLDIERS TO GREG LAGACE AT DGPFSS, BY PHONE AT 613-996-6444 OR BY E-MAIL AT LAGACE.GM(AT)FORCES.GC.CA NLT 14 NOV 08


THE CAMP WILL ACCOMMODATE UP TO 15 INJURED SOLDIERS. IF THERE IS SUFFICIENT INTEREST, A SECOND CAMP WILL BE OFFERED EARLY IN THE NEW YEAR. FURTHER DETAILS WILL FOLLOW. COSTS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS WILL BE BORNE BY DGPFSS


MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SOLDIER ON CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.CFSOLDIERON.CA


SIGNED BY MGEN W. SEMIANIW, CMP

 

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Good Day to all;

I recently visited the Casselman Medical Cadet Corps #2804 ( http://www.armycadethistory.com/Cadet%20Corps%20DB/db_cc_2804.htm) to do a presentation on Soldier On. I was scheduled to speak for about an hour and ended up staying until the end of the evening to help the CO do some promotions. I showed the March 2007 TSN episode Bell Spirit of the Game "Soldier On" to start followed by a pp presentation of pictures. At the end they presented me with their corps coin. I was also introduced to Sgt Norman Bedard (retired) who was key in starting up the Casselman Corps in 2004. A very interesting fact about him is that he was in Vietnam as a Canadian CF member. I asked how many Canadians were there with him at the time and his recollection was around 160 both field officers and support trades. During this week of Remembrance I will be thinking about Sgt Norman Bedard and all those other Canadians who have served in areas not so well know.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

The third picture is of their visit to the HMCS Charlottetown this summer.

 

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In the next few months their will be a few different initiatives to raise funds for the Soldier On program all involving CF members and extream sports.

1. LS Jean-Paul Richard who is presently in St-John's Newfoundland in school will be starting his huge goal of tackling the 7 Summits, he will be starting with Mt. Aconcagua in South America (Dec 2008). He is working hard both in school and keeping his love of extreme sports alive and well. I have attached a link to a recent article featuring his plans. He will be self supported and hopefully with a few sponsors will be able to offset some of his out of pocket costs. Thanks for your time and great efforts J-P. Soldier On

2. LCol O'Keefe will once again accept the challenge of the World's most daunting cycling race the RAAM. ( Race Across America) In 2006 he became one of only a handful of cyclist to complete it as an Official Finisher. (11 days 5 hours) His long storied athletic career is impressive and no doubt second to non when it comes to pushing ones self to the limits and beyond. A crew of CF members has once again assembled to provide support for his attempt and I know he would be the first to acknowledge their tremendous work in achieving his mission to once again complete and improve on his previous time. Soldier On

3. And I will be heading to France in May 2009 to compete in the Surgeres 48hr World Running Champ. Only 12 men and 12 woman are invited to this event from around the world. 48 hours of running will be a task but it is doable. I will no doubt be in the best shape of my life for this event and will need to be most importantly at my best mentally LOL. I will not be alone in this however and will draw on those who support me.

I will post a few pictures of LS Richard and LCol O'Keefe in the future and will update you on their progress.

I will do my best to post all the great initiatives that have been going on and are planned for the future.I just heard of one lady selling Christmass ornaments outside the HairForce barber shop in Winnipeg for Soldier On, thank you. Hopefully I will get some more info on that.

We continue to receive donations and in the past few months have received many in Honour of our fallen. The time and efforts by both CF members/family and friends as well as CF supporters has been tremendous and I would like to extend a heart felt THANK YOU to all. I will do my best to post all the great initiatives that have been going on.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Update to yesterdays post, J-P Richard and his bid for the 7-Summits and his efforts to raise awareness and funds for Soldier On.
http://today.mun.ca/news.php?news_id=4199
Jean-Paul Richard [jeanprich@gmail.com]

Duty With Honour
Soldier On 

 

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MCpl Jody Mitic will once again be participating in the St Patrick's Day 5km run in Toronto 2009. He has a Facebook group called "Jodys Next Step!!" His goal for 2009 is to raise 100,000 for the St John's Rehab Hospital/Foundation. Continue the great work Jody.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On

 

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Good Day to all; a few things have been going on this past week. MCpl Jody Mitic was on Mike Duffy Live on CTV, great work Jody.

And another CF member representing like we only can Sgt Edith Scott of 17 Wing Supply & Food Services in Winnipeg. She has taken the time to put together 850 of these little CF members for Christmass tree decorations. She choose this year to donate part of the proceeds to both Soldier On and the Canadian Wounded Warriors funds. There are 19 different kinds in this picture. Sgt Scott has a long history of doing this and chooses different charities each year to contribute to.

Thanks for your time and great efforts Sgt Scott

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Those are awesome!  Any idea how someone from outside Winnipeg can get a few of those?

 

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Yes she mails them out, you can find her on the DIN. I have ordered all 19. I will send her an email to see if she does not mind me posting  her email addy on here.

 

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Good Day to all; a few things have been going on this past week. MCpl Jody Mitic was on Mike Duffy Live on CTV, great work Jody.

And another CF member representing like we only can Sgt Edith Scott of 17 Wing Supply & Food Services in Winnipeg. She has taken the time to put together 850 of these little CF members for Christmass tree decorations. She choose this year to donate part of the proceeds to both Soldier On and the Canadian Wounded Warriors funds. There are 19 different kinds in this picture. Sgt Scott has a long history of doing this and chooses different charities each year to contribute to.

Thanks for your time and great efforts Sgt Scott

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

Sgt Edith Scott's home email is  noscott[AT]mts.net

Just changed the @ symbol so she doesn't get 'harvested'.
Bruce
Thanks Bruce.
Sgt Scott sent me this regarding her soldiers, with her permission:
"A Soldier for Your Christmas Tree"

Each year I like to make crafts to support a charity, last year it was the Salvation Army's Adopt a Family Program.  This year 2008 with troops deploying from Shilo and knowing the challenges these men and women would be facing, I wanted to do something and decided that I would support the "CF Soldier On" and "Wounded Warriors Fund" from my sale of Christmas tree ornaments.

As a member of the CF, and employed at 17 Wing Winnipeg Air Mov Section, the deploying troops from Shilo departed though our terminal.  They may not be my brother, sister, son or daughter but they are a fellow member of the Canadian Forces.  For every soldier that went through the Air Mov Section's door to board the aircraft a small prayer was said, and through out the past year as I worked on the ornaments in the evenings another prayer was said to bring them home safe. 

This was not an original idea of mine; I first bought my soldier at a craft sale when posted to CFB Suffield in 1995.  Every year when hanging my ornaments on the Christmas tree, I think how much I cherished that ornament and thought that maybe someone else too would enjoy "A Soldier for your Christmas Tree". 

 

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Good Day to all;

In Sept I was asked to speak about the Soldier On program and my role in developing the awarness at an ACE (Advocates for Communittee Education Conference) in Trenton ON. The Committee is made up of people who have an intellectual disability and their mission is to bring awarness and inclusion to their communities. Angela Clark of Community Living Campbellford/Brighton asked me to speak and wanted a motivational type style, being one of my first planned speeches I was very nervous but quickly settled in and chatted away for about 20 minutes followed by many questions concerning the CF and Soldier On program. The toughest question being "can someone with an intellectual disability join the CF" I answered fairly and without BS.
I recently received a few pictures from that day and wanted to post them.
www.communitylivingcampbellford.com
I had a great time and the members were very friendly and receptive.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Army News has posted a six part interview about Soldier On that took place during Army Week here in Ottawa, Lt Mailloux and Greg Lagace are interviewed at NDH
http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/lf/English/6_5.asp

Soldier On

 

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Good Day to all;
CTV Ottawa has a 3 part series that started last night called Soldiers Stories. Last night was the first episode with Cpl Shawn Fevens. Along with a written article there is a 4min news storey. Check it out at this link.
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081115/OTT_soldiers_part_one_081115/20081117/?hub=OttawaHome

On another note Sgt Karen McCoy, MCpl Jody Mitic and Sgt Steve Daniel (retired) will all be attending the Canadian Forces Sports Awards in Ottawa this coming Saturday. They were chosen for the Honourable Mention category. Congratulation's

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Good Day to all;

St-Jean recruit school was at it again this past Friday (21st) check out the poster attached. Mustache shaving fund raising event. $1445.00 dollars raised and a few SMajor's upper lips exposed. LOL Their contributions to date are priceless when considering education and awareness raised, and now exceed $20,000 in funds donated.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On

 

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Further to my last post;

1. MWO P. Monsigneur
2. Group Photo of all SM and the SCWO and CO
3. LCol Whelan.

 

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One last post of the day;

Today a Toronto Maple Leaf Great ( Hall of Famer) took out time from his travels to visit Pte Rob Webster (PPCLI) in Toronto today. Chatted and signed a few auto's for him over a 40 min period. Will not be any pics posted but I am sure if you are a hockey fan (Leaf fan) like Rob is you know what it meant.
For those who do not know- Johnny Bower is ex military (PPCLI) way back in the 40's. Still has his army issued goalie pads from his service years.( Hall of Fame wants them put he won't give them up)
Thanks Mr. Bower for taking time to visit one of our-your brothers.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Link to IRUN magazine. MCpl Paul Franklin is on the cover and did an interview for the pub.
http://www.irunnation.com/issues/article.php?id=120&intIssueID=6

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Good Day to all;

I will be headed to Kingston ON tommorrow for the Soldier On SportFit camp. Monday night is the meet and greet for all participants followed by 3 days of sport/fitness activity. We have 10 injured/ill/wounded CF members participating from across Canada. We will have a number of SME's on hand from CF Rehab/PSP and Canadian Paralympic coaches,trainers and athletes. Running,swimming and cycling will be the 3 main fitness activities with a couple of paralympic sport intros. We will all get a chance to try out sledge hockey with some of our very own Gold medal winners from the Canadian National Mens sledge hockey team. (the last time Hockey Canada participated they handed out Canadian hockey jerseys so I hope the same happens this time)
We will also be going over protocol modification*** having your pers docs indicate that you can perform your annual PT test in a different way for short. ( I will post at a later date the steps required for this process as many do not know or understand the process)

And finally with the weather moving in our first couple of days may be limited to only a few participants due to driving and flying conditions. Non the less we are moving forward and taking small steps towards improving the system.

Thanks again to all who continue to support.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean

 

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Good Day to all;

For the past few months there has been a Teddy Bear going around some of our military communities. Cpl Smiles (pics attached) is the brain child of Anna Lopes. (www.milliondollarsmiles.ca) I first read about her bears in the Toronto Sun and thought that it would be a good idea to raise some happiness and funds for one of our CF families. So I called her and Cpl Smiles was enlisted into the CF. He skipped basic and went straight into operational action visiting various CFB Trenton units including Health Services,CMED, Fire Department, 424 Sqn, Air Force Museum and the local MFRC. As well he spent many nights at home with both civilian and CF members. His mission was to get 100 hugs along with a few donations. He brought along a journal for those to write in and add pictures. He made it to Ottawa where he spent some time with Chief of Air Staff personal, DFIT and many DGPFSS staff and families. Late November he received his 100th huge and had received with it a total of $645 dollars. Anna Lopes employer DST Output Canada Markham Ontario matched those funds to bring the total to $1300 dollars. ( Anna rounded it up with a final 10 dollar donation) Now Cpl Smiles along with his journal (filled with pictures,stories and special notes) and the $1300 dollars will be off to a CF family with a special needs child. Sandy from the Military Families Funds is making the arrangements now so that Cpl Smiles makes it to his new home and family before Christmass.
I have attached a few photo's of many that we have in the journal.

Have a safe journey home Cpl Smiles.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On

 

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Great initiative Andrew
Giant teddy with a big heart & a fat wallet going to a special needs family

Excellent! 

BZ

CHIMO!

 

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Good Day to all;
Just a quick update on our recent activities with the Soldier On program. Last week in Kingston we conducted the SO SportFit camp that had 9 CF members from across Canada participate along with local and national PSP staff, Canadian Paralympic Committee National athletes, coaches and managers from various sports. The 9 participants were very motivated to achieve the best possible outcome for the week and they provided continued feedback and thoughts on how we can better the program for the future. Aside from the sports and fitness focus, friendships and peer support were instrumental in its success.
Army News was there for the week and documented with video and still photo's that will come out early next year. They will provide us with some still shots that I can post on here at a later date but the end product is what we can look forward to watching.

There was one incident ( ok maybe a couple  ) that elevated heartrates and MCpl Rick Rickard provided a great show as he took the turn in the field house at about 30km an hour on a 3 wheel recumbent road cycle. Needless to say he did not make it. With track rash and a little sore he carried on. (Rick is a single above knee amputee who has been in the CF 20years post accident) the picture attached is a similar style type cycle he was on just to give you an idea.

Just received this picture of MCpl Rick Rickard. We did not have climbing on the agenda (Kingston wall was closed due to exams) but were there is a will there is a way. Some of the participants ventured to the local climbing gym and had fun doing some top roping.Thanks to all who helped put this together.

Duty With Honour
Soldier On
Sgt Andrew McLean