Davidson calls all Southsiders to unite for Great Challenge Walk

Dear Editor:

So last year in early May, I stopped in at Gordon Pharmasave in downtown Kincardine, and Krista Bell said to me, “Well, Keith, we did it to you again!"

I said, "What are you talking about?"

"Kate Mahood-Richards got the Great North Side versus South Side Challenge Walk going again and the North has won the cup for the past two years!”

I said, "Good for Kate. I love people who make things happen. BUT keep your Northside head up because next year I am coming back to participate and try to rally the South to victory - count on it!"

Turns out Kate has tied the Great Challenge Walk with a national school program, “Turn Off the Screens Week.” Wow - getting kids off their digital machines deserves a BRAVO! 

Kate and the Huron Heights Home and School Association have planned the Great Challenge Walk for next Monday, May 1, from 6-7:30 p.m. The Penetangore River is the dividing line for whether you walk for the North or the South, and you walk to Victoria Park and sign in at the Gazebo.

Here's hoping the whole community, young and old, fit and not-so-fit, will participate like they used to in the late '70s, '80s and most of the '90s.

The Kincardine recreation department started the Great Challenge Walk when Participaction Canada was trying to get people more active. It used to make me mad when we'd hear that the average 60-year-old Swede was more fit than the average 30-year-old Canadian, so we tried to do something about it in good ole' Kincardine.

The walk became an annual event, everybody participated and had fun doing so. We used to serve coffee, chocolate milk and cookies at the Gazebo for participants.

The magnificent  trophy for the Great Walk is the old 1930s Junior Bruce League Baseball Championship Trophy (you can see it on Page 253, History of Kincardine 1848-1984). It was given to the recreation department when the Kincardine Club closed up. It's the best vintage trophy in town. 

Mayors Charles Mann, Donna Wilson and Glenn Sutton, during their terms, always walked from their side of town the night of the big event, signed the book and then went in to preside at the council meeting at the town hall, then located at Victoria Park. At 8 p.m., they would excuse themselves from council and come out to the Gazebo and present the grand old trophy to the winning side.

The Great Walk was a wonderful social event. People from the opposite side of the river would be kidding each other about what the results would be prior to the final tally. Famous town characters Jack Pym and Norm Dunsmoor from the North and Nute Cuyler and Jack Graham from the South would really be giving each other the raspberry every year. It was a hoot to hear them go at each other.

Nute and Jack Graham would accuse the North of signing in their dogs and cats and that it was not fair that the North had 20 per cent more of the populace.

Norm and Jack Pym would say, "What are you talking about? The South has the cemetery and you guys are always signing in people who are buried over there!" What fun!

What I liked about the Great Walk was that people who never walked for exercise, would participate to help their side of town win the cup, and many kept on walking after the event. Kincardine has more walkers than any other town of comparable size in Canada. Come to town any day and you will see people walking the streets, the boardwalks, the trails, the shoreline, the Davidson Centre track. People walk, walk, walk in Kincardine. 

We have a mosaic of walkers. I credit this phenomenon to the Great Kincardine Participaction Challenge Walk started many moons ago - participants have kept on walking and passed on their love of walking to their kids and grandkids. That is my theory anyway and I am sticking to it! It's great Canadiana!

Monday night, May 1, I am challenging Southsiders to come to the parking lot at Hi-Way Variety at 6 p.m., and PARTICIPATE in the Great Walk. We will have a pep rally. I will get my Attack horn out and lead us in a few CHARGES and a few rounds of “GO SOUTHSIDE GO.” I  have an old Kincardine flag and a Canadian flag for a couple of people to carry, plus a few inspirational signs for others to hold. 

Then, I will pipe us all down the sidewalk, across the river and in to Victoria Park. It will be a grand entrance! Go Southsiders Go - you rock! Help bring the old trophy back to the right side of the river where it belongs! 

Do it Southside! Just do it! Charge!

R. Keith Davidson,
Kemble Shore and Kincardine