A Vancouver, B.C., woman is preparing to take on what could be the longest unassisted, nonstop swim ever attempted on Canadian soil, all to raise money for youth mental health services in the Okanagan. From July 10-12, Jessi Harewicz plans to swim the 106-kilometre length of Okanagan Lake from Vernon to Penticton. She’ll follow traditional English Channel rules—no wetsuit, no stopping to rest, and no touching her support boat during the nearly three-day journey. Harewicz told Castanet that about 10 people in the world have completed a swim this distance with those rules in place. The accomplished swimmer said she has lived with mental health challenges for more than 20 years, and explained that endurance swimming has helped her through difficult times. Funds raised from the swim will support Foundry Centres across the Okanagan, which provide mental health, substance use, and other support services for young people and their families. “For me, it’s mental health. It’s exercise, it’s adventure. This is what I live for: swimming in the open water,” she said. “I’m fortunate enough to have a team of people with me, including my father, who always come along and I don’t have to do much. I just have to keep my arms spinning. They gotta do all the hard work.” Three new Foundry Centres, which are operated by the Canadian Mental Health Association, will be supported by funds Harewicz raises. “We wanted to do something where we literally are swimming through the communities which are creating support for families and the youth,” she said. “We’ve already had some big donors, and we really want to get more and more of the word out there to try and give money and support.” Harewicz said this swim is estimated to take between 48 and 60 hours, but explains this isn’t her first time making a nonstop swim across great distances. “I swam the English Channel about nine years ago, that was kind of where it all started. I continued on to do the Catalina Channel, the Manhattan Island Swim,” she said, noting those swims were lengthy but had high success rates. “Then I decided to get more tricky, and I was the first Canadian to go over and swim the North Channel, which is from Ireland to Scotland.” Locally, Harewicz said she took on the challenge of swimming 58 kilometres from Nanaimo to Kitsilano Beach. “I wanted to swim the widest part of the Georgia Strait ... unassisted, no sleeping, no stopping,” she said. “That was a real test.” Upon completion of her Lake Okanagan journey, Harewicz said she hopes to have it ratified by the Marathon Swimmers Federation, which has already registered her as having completed a Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming for her completions of the English Channel, Catalina Channel, and Swim Around Manhattan. With files from Castanet and CTV News Vancouver’s Demetra Maragos
