A Lambton Kent District School Board teacher has returned to the classroom with a story her students are calling “a bit scary but cool” after taking part in a commemorative Great Lakes relay this summer.
Jane Baldwin-Marvell, who teaches at McNaughton Avenue Public School in Chatham, was one of 68 swimmers chosen for a 661-kilometre relay marking the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The freighter went down in Lake Superior in 1975, killing all 29 crew members on board.
The relay began above the wreck site and concluded in Detroit, Mich., symbolically completing the voyage the Fitzgerald never finished. Swimmers carried iron ore pellets — the same cargo the ship had been transporting — to deliver at the end of the route.
Baldwin-Marvell swam a 31-kilometre stretch from Lexington to Port Huron with a four-person team, calling the experience both exhausting and unforgettable.
“It was physically the most gruelling thing I have ever done,” she said. “But at the same time, the most incredible experience.”
She said she felt honoured to help commemorate the lives lost and is already discussing future swims with her teammates.
Back at McNaughton Avenue Public School, Baldwin-Marvell said her students were captivated by the story and photos from the event.
“They thought it sounded a bit scary but cool,” she said.
