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2006 Lifetime
Achievement Award Recipient
Mercia Sixta
Mercia was a keen recreational
athlete when in 1976 she took a course on kayaking at Capilano College . Some close encounters
in river paddling taught her to fear and respect whitewater
and this has stayed with her since. Mercia was one of a small group
of keen kayakers who went on to train as instructors, four
of whom in 1984 sought certification by the British Canoe
Union. Derek Hutchinson, a senior coach for the British Canoe
Union (BCU) was invited to examine them and they became the
first such certified instructors in North
America .
SKABC
and PIKA
Mercia 's passion has sustained
her through the years, including through the demanding years
of raising a family (her children grew up in boats). She was
one of the founding members of the Sea-Kayak Association of
British Columbia (SKABC) and it was not long before Mercia became the organization's
third president, a position she held for 14 years. She then
formed the Pacific International Coastal Kayak Association
(PIKA), drawing members from Washington and British
Columbia in a collaborative
association. She combined this with her work at the Canadian
Red Cross, where she worked for 11 years in a child abuse
prevention program in the schools. She moved on from there
to work for Western Canoeing and Kayaking in Abbotsford where
she is now the company's kayak expert and buyer.
The
Kayak Symposium
Mercia and a group of friends
inaugurated a kayak safety weekend at UBC in 1985. Although
it was based to some degree on the commercially-focused West
Coast Sea Kayak Symposium in Port Townsend, Mercia 's symposium was to be as
commerce-free as possible. The symposium continued to grow,
from 40-50 attendees to 250, moving to Camp Alexandra , then Camp Elphinstone , trying a number of sites
before settling at the Pioneer Camp on Thetis Island . Thanks to these events,
thousands of people in the province have received kayak safety
education. A long-time colleague, Bridget Hamilton, identifies Mercia as having the knack to challenge people to go that extra step
to improve their skills, yet she always remains sensitive
to the fear that may lurk in the background, remembering her
early whitewater experiences. Although she's a hard taskmaster, Mercia says it is critical for individuals to learn the skills and
the judgment necessary for the challenging ocean environment. Mercia and crew finally brought the Symposium to a close last year
on the event's 20th anniversary.
CORK
CORK (Creative Options for Recreational
Kayaking) has been an offshoot of the Pacific International
Coastal Kayak Association. Mercia had a brush with disability
when she was young: afflicted by the bends, she experienced
paralysis and found herself unable to use her arms for about
two years, or to walk any distance. For many years she found
that she did not want to participate in work with disabled
individuals as it brought back unpleasant memories of her
own experiences. But one day she responded to a call from
a paraplegic man who wished to return to the scene of a tragedy
in which he became a paraplegic in a boating accident. Before
long she was collaborating with Bonnie Friesen, an aquatic
expert with the Vancouver Parks Board and a number of other
colleagues to provide kayaking to the disabled. This mushroomed
to the point where two weekend workshops a year are now held
at the BC Lions' Camp Squamish , and pool sessions are
held at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and at the Stan Strong
Pool. In 1998, Mercia was awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award with the Vancouver
Parks Board for her work with disabled paddlers.
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