Aswimfortheages

DIANE STRANDBERG dstrandberg@tricitynews.com

Stories from Tri-City News headlines of decades past will be a reccurring feature as the publication approaches its 40th anniversary in 2024

Most people might know Fin Donnelly as the MLA for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain.

But 28 years ago, Donnelly was making headlines in the Tri-City News for a planned 1,400 km swim along the entire length of the Fraser River.

Donnelly’s 1995 “Swim for Life” was his way to encourage people to think of the health of the river

Donnelly was used to ocean swims but navigating a fast-flowing river was going to be a challenge, he said at the time.

“The thing I’m most concerned about is the river itself the eddies the whirlpools I’m going to have to get educated on how to swim the river as I learned to swim the ocean,” he said

Flanked by river rafts, he used the river’s current to travel between 80 and

100 kilometres a day.

Donnelly’s goal was to raise awareness about the degradation of the mighty river and the impact of development on the salmon

Donnelly swam the river again in 2000, according to the Rivershed Society, which he later founded.