Carleton swimmer Jenna Lambert received an award recognizing contributions toward the awareness, equality, and integration of persons with disabilities.
The third-year communications student was awarded one of the two Dr. John Davis Burton Award at the 21st annual award ceremony held at Carleton University March 5.
An Algonquin College student, Samuel Graham, was the other recipient of the award.
As a para-swimmer, Lambert said she started swimming competitively 13 years ago, and competed with Team Canada for two years. She has been involved in the Y Knot Abilities Programs in her hometown Kingston, where she worked as a swim instructor for children with disabilities.
The Y Knot programs are designed to increase the inclusion of children with disabilities in sports.
In 2006, Lambert said she swam across Lake Ontario to raise money for a bigger and more accessible pool at the YMCA in Kingston.
She said she decided to make the swim when her swim coach and founder of the Y Knots Programs, Vicki Keith, a world-renowned marathon swimmer, did the same in 2005.
Lambert said her motivation for the swim was to bring more children with physical disabilities and their siblings to appreciate sports.
Lambert said there weren’t many athletic opportunities for people with physical disabilities in Kingston and the Y Knot programs helped to bring awareness to the disability community and to the team.
“I’ve always loved watching the kids on my team and the joy that they have getting in the water and experiencing the absolute freedom and weightlessness of the water,” she said. “I realized that I could put my passion for swimming to greater use.”
“It is such a cool thing to be recognized by someone and by the university in a way that aligns me with such an incredible legacy,” Lambert said. “Dr. Burton’s story was remarkable and he was obviously a remarkable individual.”
Throughout his career as an educator and a co-ordinator of educational support services, Burton advocated for proper training for educators and support services to create equal access to education for persons with disabilities.
The award was established in his name the year after his death in 1993.
Somei Tam, a learning specialist and disability adviser at the Paul Menton Centre at Carleton, said Burton was beloved and well-respected.
Tam said the majority of the 34 recipients to date have been Carleton students. Twenty-two recipients were from Carleton, eight from University of Ottawa, and four from Algonquin College in the history of the award.
“I think this speaks well to the history of activism and engagement of students with disabilities at Carleton,” Tam said via email.
