Riveting Annual Regatta Raises Funds for Mobility-impaired Sailors

Shriners Hospitals for Children – Canada is proud to participate in the BNI Challenge that is taking place this Saturday, August 24, 2019, at the Royal Saint-Laurent Yacht Club in Dorval. Organized by members of the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, in collaboration with other yacht clubs in the region, this fundraising event is benefitting the Association québécoise de voile adaptée (AQVA), an amazing organization that offers free adapted sailing for anyone with restricted mobility under the age of 18. The patients and families of our hospital already benefit and enjoy AQVA activities through our rehabilitation program.

Doctors J-P Capolicchio and Jean A. Ouellet have enthusiastically joined forces to form Team Shriners. "Offering a child with reduced mobility the opportunity to sail is so rewarding! And all this thanks to AQVA...for me it's essential," says Dr. J-P Capolicchio. Raised funds will allow AQVA to purchase adapted equipment for these brave sailors and to continue running their adapted sailing program.

It is then a captivating scene that will be waiting for us next Saturday: sailboats from various yacht clubs, mixed with courageous sailors free from the confines of their wheelchairs—all united for the 7^th annual BNI Challenge. Starting at 1 p.m., at Dorval’s Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, this exciting event held on Lake St. Louis will raise funds for sailors whose desire to sail beyond their daily physical challenges, which requires a special kind of determination.

“Sailing with reduced mobility is not only a huge challenge,” says event organizer Patrick Flaherty, “it takes unique skills; it takes daring—and just crazy courage. It is all about sheer determination and overcoming enormous obstacles. For seven years now, sailors from Quebec have joined forces at Dorval’s Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club to raise funds for the gutsy sailors of AQVA and honour their unique determination,” says Flaherty--who also points out that Voile Québec and Sail Canada endorse this unique event.

This year more than 30 sailboats are expected from sailing clubs all around Lake St. Louis and Lake of Two Mountains. Each skipper registers their yacht and raises donations online from family and friends, and the AQVA sailors themselves participate in their specially designed Martin 16 sailboats.”

If you would like to support Doctors J-P Capolicchio and Jean A. Ouellet from Team Shriners, join us at www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/association-quebecoise-de-voile-adaptee-aqva/p2p/JP- Capolicchio-Team-Shriners/.

You can learn more about the AQVA at www.aqva.org.

The whole event is fantastic and the day will be fun and exciting. So save the date, participate and/or donate!

The Royal St-Lawrence Yacht Club is located at 1350 chemin Bord du Lac/Lakeshore, Dorval, QC H9S 2E3.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190823005016/en/

For interviews with Team Shriners physicians:

Laure Moureaux
Communications Officer
Shriners Hospitals for Children ─ Canada
514-282-7222/Cell: 514-207-2267
[email protected]

For more information on the event:

Patrick Flaherty
514-655-8533
aqva.org/bni-challenge
Bnicanada.com