The much awaited opening of the new fitness centre at Laurentian University is finally at hand. Please read the following announcement from Ron Larwood.

Provided all of the relocation plans go as anticipated, the opening of the new centre should proceed as follows:
* Active Living Office has relocated to the first floor of the expansion;
* The Active living Office will be open for full service on Monday December 1;
* The Athletic Therapy Clinic will relocate on November 28 and re-open on December 1;
* Existing weight and cardio rooms will be closed December 3, 4 & 5;
* The Facility Control Centre will continue to provide service from the existing location;
* On December 6, the Facility Control Centre will begin operating from the new location;
* New training room and second floor will open Saturday December 6;
* New cardio equipment will be in place for Saturday December 6;
* New weight training equipment will arrive the first week of February 2009;
* Extended facility operating hours will come into effect on January 5, 2009;
* New facility membership pricing structures will come into effect on Monday December 8, 2008 (not applicable to full time LU students);
* Climbing walls will open sometime in January (more information to follow);

(Every effort will be made to minimize any inconveniences during this transition period that may affect our patrons.)

The entire fitness complex will now offer the following indoor facilities:
* 2 single gymnasium courts and 1 double gymnasium with spectator seating
* 50m swimming pool with 3 diving boards, 4 platforms, handicap lift and viewing gallery
* 200m four lane running track
* 2 squash courts
* 2 climbing walls featuring 8 routes with automatic belay hardware
* 1 training room housing the weight and cardio equipment
* Gender specific saunas
* General locker rooms
* Premium locker rooms


On December 6 access to the fitness facilities will be through the newly established entrance (downstairs in the Fieldhouse. To protect the privileges of our patrons, a proxy card access control system has been installed (full time Laurentian University students will be able to use their existing swipe
card). The system will be phased in over the next few months. In the meantime, patrons are asked to show their membership or student card to the attendant to gain entry to the facilities. Your continued patience and cooperation would be greatly appreciated.

An official opening ceremony of the facility will be held early in the new year.

Please feel free to drop in and visit the new fitness facilities commencing Saturday December 6.

Ron Larwood
Manager: Department of Active Living/Physical Education Facilities

Minna Mettin-Kekalainen experienced her first solo free fall jump with instructors Angus Smith (left) and “Rick the Planet” on April 26.

by Greater Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Sabrina Byrnes

“When I was little ... I actually believed that people learn to fly as they grow up,” said Minna Mettin-Kekalainen. More than a year ago, the 42-year-old Sudbury woman made her childhood dreams a reality when she took on adaptive skydiving.

“I had such a desire to fly, I felt it was something that would happen. My grandmother said, ‘when you get older, you will realize that people cannot fly’,” she said.

“Well, I’m older now and I do fly, so I still don’t understand what she was trying to tell me.”

“‘Can’t’ is not in my vocabulary,” she said. “If you just eliminate that word out of your vocabulary then you will have a better life.”

The single mother of two teenagers was paralyzed from the waist down many years ago after a motorcycle accident. The accident also resulted in an acute brain injury. In 2005, she was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease), which is a devastating neurodegenerative disease.

Before her accident, Mettin-Kekalainen was a competitive hockey player and motocross racer. After her accident, many years passed before she was reintroduced into sports, which brought her back into a healthy and active lifestyle, building her courage and self-esteem.

She’s been involved with many sports and also co-founded the adaptive rowing program at the Sudbury Rowing Club. It was there her path to skydiving took root.

While at the canoe club, Mettin-Kekalainen met a windsurfing instructor and asked if he could teach her his sport. He said he would see what they could do, and she thought this was someone worth talking to.

“I like to associate myself with people who don’t believe in limitations,” she said.

The subject of the Parachute School of Toronto came up in their conversation and they both had the same thought — they were going skydiving. The next day they drove down south for what was Mettinen-Kekalainen’s first tandem skydiving experience on Aug. 7, 2007.

“I remember my first thoughts were perhaps a bit morbid, (like) this is what it must feel like to be dead, ... just peacefully floating there in this space, and everything is beautiful and calm and feels like everything is quiet — despite the fact that if you’re actually paying attention to your ears, it’s extremely loud, like a jet engine roaring by,” she said, reminiscing.

“When the parachute opened, my first thought was ‘it’s done, it’s over’ — a slight moment of disappointment until I realized it was fun to fly the parachute, as well,” she added.

Mettin-Kekalainen noted there was great support in the skydiving community.

“In skydiving, we literally trust our life with complete strangers,” she said, adding they check each other’s equipment.

“It makes it a sport that we somehow feel close and responsible for each other in more areas of life than just in the plane and in the sky,” she said.

In April, she went to New Hampshire to experience a wind tunnel — a simulated free-fall experience in a controlled environment — to ensure she was able to do a free fall jump, before actually jumping out of the plane solo.

On April 26, Mettin-Kekalainen experienced her first solo jump.

That day, Mettin-Kekalainen was the first paralyzed person with no prior skydiving experience, to successfully complete a solo free fall jump.

“It truly was the most liberating and beautiful feeling I’ve ever felt. I completely felt whole, like there was nothing different about me. Up there, when I’m falling, you would never know I’m a person that’s in a wheelchair. I felt from that first moment on that I can do all the same things ... if I work at it. I really felt ‘normal,’ I felt like anyone else,” she said, smiling.

Because her range of motion is limited, she needed the balance of a person on each side of her so she could pull the cord to release the parachute. Without them, she would flip upside down when she reached back for the chord.

A developer in South Africa sent her a pair of adaptive pants to wear while jumping solo. The pants have a strap she pulls, which raises her legs so she is able to land safely.

“Sporting activities ... are extremely therapeutic, not just physically, but psychologically and emotionally. People with disabilities are not included in society to the extent we would like to be in most areas, but sport is one of those areas that is more accessible now and it’s definitely something that is very self-satisfying for all people.”

Mettin-Kekalainen has a dream of seeing a paralyzed skydiver jump into the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Paralympic Games.

“I think in 20 years, it won’t be so odd anymore that paralyzed people sky dive. I’m hoping that documenting all this stuff is not a waste of time but that it will help other people, who perhaps ... thought they could fly when they grew up.”