Parke Davis, Richard Pessah, Judy Piel, Tony Wright and other key contributors and participants talk about the history of Eastern Canada’s largest swim event. How it grew from just 12 swimmers to over 800 and how dozens of volunteers make this a safe, well organized, can’t miss event for hundreds of swimmers each year. It raises tens of thousands of dollars each year for charity, with the help of sponsors such as Bushtukah.
Parke Davis has volunteered for the Bring on the Bay Swim since inception. The main liaison
with the NSC Board & members, Parke generally sets the courses & arranges both the buoys & the anchored safety sailboats. TELUS – where Parke worked prior to retirement – sponsored the first two swims. Parke is a retired U of T Bachelors & Master’s degree aerospace engineer who instead worked in communications for most of his career.
Richard Pessah finished 2nd of 12 swimmers in the inaugural Bring on the Bay swim event in 2007. He has raced in many triathlon and road races across North America, Bermuda, Hawaii, Europe and Asia including a few age-group podium finishes.
He is also a member of the Nepean Sailing Club and an avid sailor! As the Co-Race Director, along with a great team of committee members, he has helped the race to grow to over 800 swimmers. As an international Airline Pilot, it was necessary to juggle his busy schedule to accommodate the event along with the many event planning meetings. He has received awards from Easter Seals and the Province of Ontario for his efforts on the Bring on the Bay Swim.
Judy Andrew Piel is co-race director.
Bushtukah Community Support Co-ordinator by day, triathlete and runner by night.
Judy has been co race director since she was talked into it by Richard in 2013.
Her husband Harold Piel also runs the safety kayak program for the event.
Tony Wright joined the organizing committee in 2017. He took responsibility for adding the 1500m swim to the event, figuring out how to successfully ferry swimmers to the halfway point of the course for a separate start. His career started with development of system software and operating systems for real time process control, becoming a project management expert for mission-critical systems. He was VP of International Operations at Systemhouse, and more recently corporate Vice President at CGI, leading an international team with global responsibility for the performance of projects.
Please click the link below to join the Zoom Webinar:
https://zoom.us/j/92277095006?pwd=VXJtdjkvY2Z4cjFMY0ZJclpRR2lXZz09
Webinar ID: 922 7709 5006 Passcode: 180583
We recommend that you join 10 to 15 minutes early to test your video and sound. We will be playing some introductory content. During the webinar, you can use the Q&A button to ask questions at any time. The moderator will relay any questions to the presenter at the end of the presentation.
There is no fee to attend, and the webinar is open to all who are interested. Feel free to pass the link along to anyone else who may like to attend. You can find the full schedule for the series here.
Contact Tony Wright (tony.wright.ott at gmail.com) with any questions or feedback.
If you would like to volunteer to speak, please contact Jim Kelly (jimfrankelly at gmail.com) or Parke Davis (parke.davis.pd at gmail.com).