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•T he IFP• H alton H ills, Thursday, A ugust 1, 2013 3 e-mail: hassellsauto@bellnet.ca www.hassellautomotive.com Warranty 2006 Ford F150 XLT CALL Warranty 2008 Saturn Astra XE2008 Nissan Versa Warranty 2007 Mazda 3 Warranty They didn't quite make it to their goal-- Burling- ton's Spencer Smith Park-- but the Because Girls Can Relay team still considers its marathon swim of Lake Ontario from Kingston a success. With frigid lake temperatures, one teammate out due to exhaustion and dehydration and another coping with muscles spasms that kept her out of the water at times, the team, which included Col- leen Shields of Georgetown, decided to end the re- lay early on Saturday in Whitby, approximately 60 km shy of its goal. "It was an experience," said Shields, 61. "We're really happy with what we accomplished." "It was so much harder than we thought it was. It really was an adventure, I'm glad that I was part of it," she said. Shields and four other women, 47-year-old Ni- cole Mallette of Hamilton, 23-year-old Samantha Whiteside of New Hamburg, Rebekah Boscariol, 18 of Markham, and another 18-year-old, Mona Sharari, of Richmond Hill were attempting a nev- er-before tried 305 km swim relay across the lake from Kingston to Burlington. They hoped to do it in fi ve days. The decision to fi nish in Whitby after swimming 242 km followed a grueling 80 hours on the lake, soon after Sharari, the team's youngest member, was taken to shore because she was unwell. Shara- ri, feeling much better Saturday, rejoined the team for the last few hours of the swim. Ending early was a diffi cult decision to make. They all cried. But the water, they ultimately decid- ed, was too cold and unsafe to continue swimming in for two more days-- which, given the early delays caused by storms, was how much longer it probably would have taken them to get to Burlington. They dove into the water Tuesday morning in Kingston and at times faced two-metre high waves, winds and thunderstorms, forcing them to head to shore for three hours. There was a lot of seasickness. The next couple of days they were fortunate to have fl at, calm conditions, however the lake tem- perature only hovered around 12-14C and tem- peratures were predicted to drop even further near Toronto. Swimming in that temperature was "not com- fortable," said Shields. "It really zaps you of your energy." When she got out of the water after her swim stints it appeared she had little circulation in her fi ngers because they were white. "It could be dangerous. I was thinking, 'Is my heart going to take all of this?'" Shields had nothing but praise for their crew. "We had the most amazing crew. Without them we wouldn't have got anywhere." The team was trying to raise $300,000 for the global girls' rights group Because I Am a Girl, but fell short of their fundraising goal, reaching about $25,000 by Monday. Shields is disappointed in the fundraising so far-- they had planned to bring in $1,000 for every kilometre they swam-- but they will continue their efforts to reach $242,000 by September through their website, www.because- girlscan.com . When they came out of the water Saturday four of the fi ve swimmers-- including Shields-- said they were done with Lake Ontario altogether and will never swim it again. But by Monday for Shields, who has successful- ly crossed Lake Ontario twice and holds the Lake Ontario swim record for oldest female, that stance had softened somewhat. "I'm just going to take a break right now and see what happens," said Shields, who had been plan- ning another solo crossing of Lake Ontario maybe next summer. "My coach says I'm going. I'm not saying no, and I'm not saying yes. I'm very unde- cided right now." She will, however, be acting as swim master for two swimmers crossing the lake in August. --With fi les from Torstar News Service Police blotter Stunt driving charge laid A Georgetown man is fac- ing a stunt driving charge after Caledon OPP clocked a driver going nearly double the speed limit Monday after- noon. Shortly before 5 p.m. an of- fi cer saw a Lincoln traveling north on Mississauga Rd. at a high rate of speed and deter- mined it was going 156 km/hr in an 80 km/hr zone. Charged with race a mo- tor vehicle is Thomas Hebert, 24. The vehicle was impound- ed for seven days as a result of the stunt driving charge. Hebert is to appear in Cale- don court Sept. 23. • • • Caledon OPP charged a Hal- ton Hills woman with impaired driving after receiving a report from a citizen about an erratic driver in Bolton Wednesday (July 24). The driver was reportedly seen traveling southbound on Region- al Rd. 50 shortly before 6 p.m. OPP responded and located the suspect vehicle stopped at a red light at the intersection of George Bolton Parkway. Charged with impaired driv- ing and having over 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood is Jen- nifer Joanne Lafee, 30. Lafee is to appear in court to- day (Thursday). One driver was taken to hospital and several vehicles were damaged in a bizarre collision Friday morning at the Shoppers Drug Mart pla- za in Acton. At approximately 10:40 a.m. a 68-year-old Acton man was driving southbound on Young Street when he failed to negotiate the curve onto Queen Street. His vehicle left the road and slammed into a vehicle parked in the plaza parking lot at 252 Queen St. The vehicle then struck the shopping cart corral which caused a shopping cart to hit two other vehicles. Halton Police say the driv- er was transported to Milton Hospital for observation. There were no other injuries. The driver has been charged with careless driv- ing. Several cars damaged in lot crash A car rests in the Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot Friday after colliding with a parked car and a shopping cart corral. Photo by Peter Donohoe By LISA TALLYN Staff Writer Marathon swimmers, from left, Mona Sharari, Rebekah Boscariol, Samantha Whiteside, George- town's Colleen Shields and Nicole Mallette. Torstar News Service photo Shields says swim was 'an adventure'