Jacob's Journey to the Deaflympics

My name is Amanda Etherington I am the Head Coach of the Carleton Place Water Dragons, for the past 3 years I have had the pleasure of coaching some incredible youth. Jacob Blackburn happens to be one of those incredible youth... Jacob has always had hearing issues since he was born and Jacob has never let this hold him back in his passion for swimming.  In the past year and a half Jacob's hearing began to deteriorate and in January of 2016 Jacob had a cochlear implant placed in his left ear. The road back to the pool was not an easy one and Jacob has suffered with cronic ear infections that offen interrupt his training. Recently the decision was made for Jacob to undergo surgery in August 2017 for a cochlear inplant in his right ear. Through all the ups and downs Jacob has continued to train and train harder then before with hopes of making it to the Deaflympics. Jacob has been a supportive and caring teammate, he makes the pool a better place with his upbeat personality and sunny disposition.
In December of 2016 of this year after an impressive 1500m swim at Team Showndown in Brantford where he beat the Deaflympic time by over 2 minutes Jacob was named to the Canadian Deaf Team who will be competing at the Deaflympics in Samsun,Turkey in July 2017. There is very limited funding for the team and in order for Jacob to travel to Samsun Turkey to compete his family will have to pay  out of pocket the $3500.00 fee. This fee does not include the possibility of travel to Toronto this summer to train with the team prior to heading to Samsun, Turkey. We at the Carleton Place Water Dragons are asking anyone who is able to help to please donate funds to Jacob's Journey to the Deaflympics this summer. Any funds that exceed the $5000 goal with be donated to the Canadian Deaf Swim Team.