The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

5 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,A ugust 12,2021 insidehalton.com Guess who got through Covid without one case? V for Vistamere For us multiple precautions meant we didn't get a single case. And when safety is a vital concern, that's something to be proud of. We're also proud of our cosy suites and very reasonable price. Vistamere in quiet residential South Oakville. Take a virtual tour at vistamere.ca 380 Sherin Drive Oakville, Ontario L6L 4J3 905.847.1413 vistamere.ca Like us on BOOK A TOUR TODAY Founded in 1991 Peter Watson MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI Jennifer Watson MBA, CFP®, CIM® Accepting new clients. Please visit www.watsoninvestments.com to book a free consultation. Offering safe virtual meetings and e-signatures for new client onboarding. "Our clients enjoy talking about their retirement dreams and we enjoy helping them get there." Peter & Jennifer info@watsoninvestments.com (905) 842 -2100 For Lily and Maggie Bell, the lockdown was... well, a little rough. The young sisters are both balls of energy look for outlets of activity. And when the pandemic ar- rived on Canada's shores, they quickly realized that the indoors were not for them. "I liked running around in big spaces, and I didn't have a big gym to run around in," nine-year-old Maggie said of why she didn't like her online gym classes. Added 12-year-old Lily, "When COVID started, it was a little weird, because I didn't like online (classes)." "You could only spend so many hours in your room, together," said their mother, Irene Frankland. The sisters are very ac- tive in sports. Swimming, "monkeynastix" and skat- ing are just some of their interests. So, when they learned that Oakville Pub- lic Library (OPL) and the locally-based Toronto Rock Athletic Centre (TRAC), were partnering to deliver youth programming -- ten- tatively dubbed Lacrosse and Literature -- their eyes lit up. While the programing is still in its initial stages, or- ganizers to create (accord- ing to a press release) "a sense of belonging, aiming to enhance well-being, ex- pression, physical literacy and engagement within the community." Of particular appeal to Frankland and her daugh- ters was that sports equip- ment could be borrowed for free with a library card. OPL has been loaning equipment at all branches for some time. As of this week, that includes la- crosse gear. "That would be fantastic to look up," Frankland said. "The cost of the equip- ment could be a deterrent, especially if they don't like it, or if COVID strikes and everything shuts down. It'd be nice to be able to rent them out and try it out, and see if it works." OPL director of market- ing, innovation and inte- gration Joseph Moncada said there will be 10 la- crosse kits spread across local libraries -- with the distribution to be adjusted according to demand. Each kit comes with 10 sticks and a number of balls. A QR code on the duf- fel bag offers users some fundamentals of the sport. The Bell sisters appear curious to try out lacrosse, and the library/TRAC pro- ject's mental health compo- nent intrigues their Fran- kland, who is a teacher. "From a teacher's point of view, I've noticed that the students who have sports, arts, anything outside of school, they seem to do a lot better in school in terms of their mental well-being," she said. Currently, TRAC and OPL envision lacrosse players doing a story time with children as part of the program. However, Rachel Wolff, manager of events and community engage- ment at TRAC, said it will be more than that. "It's great getting our players out there for expo- sure to the community," Wolff said. "But we really wanted to throw in that la- crosse piece." That could include stick-stringing demos, drills and general exercise. Organizers note that an Elder in Residence Indige- nous program is also being discussed as part of the ini- tiative. Moncada said that "is something we've been pushing for quite some time." STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With COVID-19 restrictions beginning to ease and parents looking for ways to get children active again, we wanted to find out more about a new partnership between the local library and locally- based Toronto Rock Athlet- ic Centre that features both an educational and sports component. LIBRARY AND TRAC TEAM UP TO KEEP KIDS ACTIVE Oakville Public Library's Joseph Moncada shows the contents of a loanable lacrosse kit. Mansoor Tanweer/Metroland MANSOOR TANWEER mtanweer@metroland.com NEWS 'LACROSSE AND LITERATURE' PROGRAM UNDERWAY