40 km swim to adopt 5 Ukrainian children

SWIMMING. Parents of a beautiful, large family of 7 children, Trifluvians Joël Lapierre and Julie Joseph wish to adopt 5 Ukrainian children. To make their dream come true, the couple must raise a minimum amount of $80,000 and that is why the father decided to take on a major challenge: swim 40 kilometers in the St. Lawrence River.

Accompanied by swimmer Heidi Levasseur, Joël Lapierre left Thursday morning (July 10) from Saint-Quentin Island, in Trois-Rivières. He will swim to Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade during the day. He should arrive around 4:30 p.m.

The Lapierre family is made up of four biological daughters, a son adopted at birth in Quebec and siblings of two boys adopted in Ukraine in 2012. In September, the couple will fly to Ukraine to go pick up 4 to 5 children.

“We do it because we care about children, particularly children in Ukraine,” says the father. We are committed to providing parents to children who do not have a favorable environment. We don't know our future children. We will be paired with them on site, so we have to spend a few weeks in Ukraine. We're very excited and nervous at the same time, but we know what to expect since we've done it before."

“When we first adopted from Ukraine, we spent almost a month in orphanages and saw children who are in groups, but who don't have love individually. It's impossible to remain indifferent to that. It touched us deeply,” added his wife.

To date, the couple has raised around $12,000. It is possible to make a donation to the Lapierre family via PayPal by visiting Julie Joseph Lapierre's Facebook page. People can also contribute financially to the project by making a donation to the organization TDH pour les enfants inc.

250 kilometers of swimming for Heidi Levasseur

As for her, swimmer Heidi Levasseur began her 8th personal challenge last Sunday, consisting of swimming the distance between Longueuil and Lévis.

This 250 km journey in the waters of the St. Lawrence River will end on July 13 in the afternoon in Lévis. The aquatic marathon runner spends around 8 hours a day in the water and accumulates around 40 kilometers per day. Thursday morning, she walked a part of the way in the company of Joël Lapierre.

The objective of her challenge is to raise $4,000 for various organizations in the communities she will visit along her route.

Here is his journey:

July 6: 42 km – Longueil to Lavaltrie – (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

July 7: 43 km – Lavaltrie to Louiseville – (7 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

July 8: 37 km – Louiseville to Trois-Rivières – (7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

July 9: Day off

July 10: 40 km – Trois-Rivières to Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade – (9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.)

July 11: 35 km – Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade to Portneuf – (9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

July 12: 40 km – Portneuf to Saint-Nicolas – (10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.)

July 13: 15 km – Saint-Nicolas to Lévis – (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.)