Dear PB Readers,

Ever wish you had the talent to make it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs or the Athens Olympic Games? Imagine the energy of being a part of the Calgary finals this week or knowing you have helped Gold Medalist Simon Whitfield as he steps up to the swim start at Athens Olympic Triathlon in August. While genetically you may have picked the wrong parents, you still have a chance to play a major role in these Athens Olympic Games. First let me give you a little background on my current problem and how you might get involved in my solution.

Back in the summer of 1998 things were looking dark for a talented young man named Simon Whitfield. As hard as he worked and as talented as he was, battling as the only elite man in all of Canada was starting to take it's toll. Simon didn't have enough international points to make the Sydney Olympic Games and his 40th place finish at the day's World Cup Triathlon gave him no reason to believe things would get better. To become eligible for the Olympic Games as Canada's Olympic Coach, I had to move from Ontario to the University of Victoria for a 12 month extensive program. Already living in Victoria, I challenged Simon to see if collectively we could make a difference in his World and Olympic rankings. Simon's biggest need going into the pre-Olympic year was money and motivated daily training partners. Collectively Simon and I called nearly forty athletes and invited them to move to Victoria to train with him for a year. Virtually every athlete we called loved the idea at moving to train with the talented young man from Kingston, Ontario but in all cases lacked the financial resources to make the move.

Not prepared to give up without a fight I made up 2000 one page flyers asking complete strangers to consider taking in an athlete for 8 months and support their athletic dreams. Within three weeks nearly two dozen families called and offered their generosity and in less than a month the training camp that Simon and I dreamed of became a reality. With no government funding we begged for free massages, got reduced pool rental time, had vitamins and equipment donated and received energy from countless hundreds of people. From that training group Whitfield went on to win the Olympic Games Gold, Jasper Blake went on to medal at Ironman Canada, Isabelle Turcotte-Baird became our top woman at the Sydney Olympics and many other athletes achieved lifetime bests.

The four years since Sydney has seen growth in Triathlon Canada's budget. We now have a paid coach (not me), a national office and paid staff working on the sport's behalf. In spite of those mini victories, we head into these Olympic Games in Athens with 1/20th the budget the Australians, Americans, British, Germans, French and Japanese athletes will have available to them. Last week my good buddy Simon emailed me to ask for a favour. Now in his final eight weeks of Olympic preparation Simon needs new fresh blood to drive him to higher fitness levels. To my knowledge, no Canadian male summer Olympian has ever repeated as gold medalist (how many gold medalists have we ever had in 108 years of Olympic history to begin with?)

The past week of trying to accommodate Simon's need to recruit some of my top athletes to his lion's den has once again re-raised the exact same issues I dealt with six years ago. A kid who has more heart, determination and guts than virtually any athlete I have ever met, possibly coming on the short end of the stick for the matter of a few dollars. Never two guys to sit and complain, Simon and I decided to put out a challenge: Will my readers (and his fans) make specific contribution to help him increase his chances of repeating Olympic Gold? Our needs are very simple.

Donate enough frequent flyer points or money toward airline tickets to help the athletes get to the training camps and races that are required between now and Athens. All points or dollars will be put towards a distinct, specific, HELP THE YOUNG TRAINING PARTNERS GET TO THE CAMPS TO HELP SIMON KICK THE WORLD'S BUTT FUND! If I hadn't seen us be so successful in Victoria in 1998-2000 when complete strangers aided our camp I would be more distraught right now. I totally believe in the next 5 days enough of you who are reading this and are in a financially position to help, will. Those who can't afford to donate frequent flyer points or money, will help by believing in your mind that desire can overcome almost anything. Never underestimate the collective value of positive energy!

I can't describe to you how incredible it was to be 20m from Simon as the Canadian flag was raised and the national anthem was played in Sydney. Simon has used that notoriety to help causes like the MS Society, Kids of Steel and hundreds of other local programs across Canada. When Simon initially called last week it was easy to initially say I was too busy and had already gone through that time / energy consuming process four years ago. Sleeping on the issue for a night and meeting with my athletes / their parents and my incredible wife I realized the right thing to do was to help a great Canadian take on the world one more time. Simon's goal is to hit the top of the podium with a Maple Leaf on his body and to pass his incredible experience and wisdom onto these young athletes who will be ready when the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games come around. "Imagine the opportunity for my son to help a man win a gold medal and learn himself" stated a proud father of one of my top athletes.

Simon's summer agenda is to move from Victoria to Penticton B.C. to benefit from the heat / humidity and new training partners he will have. He will race in Edmonton in mid-July then eventually move to my C3 training base in Caledon, Ontario and race our international July 31st event. For those of you who can get to Edmonton July 11th or Caledon July 31st I promise you will see a man do things you never could have imagined. Having read this story, you will immediately know if you can help our cause. Feel no pressure or guilt. If you are in a position to make a small or significant donation of money or frequent flyer points, please do so immediately. If you can't do not fret, I know that good things are going to happen for us. I do need to know in the next 2 days (I have to either leave some athletes home for the summer or have them flying out to meet Simon and I on June 13th-14th). Any donation is appreciated and will receive a personal email from me thanking you. Anyone who donates over $100.00 will receive an autograph picture from our entire training group helping Simon prepare for the Athens. Donations in excess of $100.00 will receive an appropriate token of our sincere appreciation. . If you are interested in helping, email me barrie@personalbest.ca or call me personally at 416-529-4452. Enough of the advertisements. Welcome to our 190th consecutive Personal Best Weekly Newsletter.

Welcome to our many new PB readers over the past week. Every week we get hundreds of emails from people around the world who are regular readers who use our material with their families, co-workers and friends. Our goal each week is to be a beacon of positive energy. While the world has an equal number of negative things that occur each day, the media tends to focus on the deaths, abuse and personal tragedy. Why not hear about the equal number of incredible stories of people's kindness, generosity and compassion? Our newsletter got started at the Sydney Olympic Games 190 weeks ago, and since that time we have never missed a Monday morning. If you should ever not get the newsletter, you can check by the Tuesday and the newsletter is also posted to our Personal Best website. If you would like to sign up your friends or have a great story / joke or positive living message please pass it on at barrie@personalbest.ca and check out our website at www.personalbest.ca

MAY 31st PB HIGHLIGHTS

1. HENRY DRUMMOND QUOTE ON LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST
2. WHO IS PACKING YOUR PARACHUTE?
3. CALEDON KIDS OF STEEL RACE A HUGE SUCCESS
4. CANADA POST WORKER COMES TO THE RESCUE
5. TWO SIMULATION DAYS TO CONSIDER JUNE 5TH AND 12TH
6. DON'T MISS BARRIE'S TUESDAY GLOBE AND MAIL ARTICLE

HENRY DRUMMOND QUOTE ON LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST

"You will find, as you look back upon your life, the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love."

WHO IS PACKING YOUR PARACHUTE?

It has been a few years since we have printed this story, but it is so appropriate in a week where I am recognizing the many people's combined gestures required to help Simon Whitfield, that I brought it out again.

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience! One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"
Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks, "Who's packing your parachute?"

Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

CALEDON KIDS OF STEEL AN UNQUALIFED SUCCESS

Race director Stewart Barclay, Cathy Wilson and their 200 volunteers executed the largest Kids of Steel Triathlon in Canada's history once again this past weekend. Over 100 children 3-6 years of age hit the finishing line of their first every athletic event. Instead of being pressured to win and count goals, assists or times, each child was given a huge hug, a finisher's medal, a t-shirt, a huge General Mills Box of Cereal and a great post-race party. With music pumping and thousands of spectators on the race site, children got to see that exercise can be cool and fun. My own god-child was able to achieve her first true Kids of Steel Triathlon even though she entered the day not believing she could. Most races in Canada have doubled in participation since it's most recognizable graduate won gold in Sydney. C3's high performance elite athletes Sean Bechtel, Kyle Jones, A.P. and Andrew Woegerer were crowd favorites for spending time with the kids throughout the morning them showing the kids world class athletic ability when they raced the course at the end of the day. A special thanks to Olympian, Eon D'Ornellas, and Ironman Champion, Lisa Bentley, who both helped hand out awards and cheer on the competitors.

TWO SIMULATION DAYS TO TRI YOUR FIRST TRI

If you are interested in a day to improve your triathlon skills join Barrie Shepley and his staff on Saturday June 5th and 12th. Both days the staff will have our clean clear lake open for you to test your open water swimming skills. The group will move from the water to the bike loops and finish the day off with running. Novices may do less than three hours of total work while our more advanced athletes (training for 1/2 Ironman, Ironman, and Sweden World Champs will go 7-10 hours of non-stop training. If you are interested in this totally supported training day, contact the C3 office at 905-838-2662 or email info@c3online.ca to save a limited spot to either (or both) day(s). Elite coaches and athletes will be out supporting your full needs.

HELPING OTHERS IN NEED

There was this fellow who worked for Canada Postal Service whose job it was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses. One day a letter came to his desk, addressed in a shaky handwriting to God. He thought, "Oh boy, better open this one and see what it's all about." So he opened it and read: "Dear God, I am an 83 year old widow living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had 100 dollars in it which was all the money I had until my next pension check. Next Sunday is Easter, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. "Can you please help me?"

The postal worker was touched, and went around showing the letter to all the others. Each of them dug into his wallet and came up with a few dollars. By the time he made the rounds, he had collected 96 dollars, which they put into an envelope and sent over to her. The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of the nice thing they had done. Easter came and went, and a few days later came another letter from the old lady to God. All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened. It read.....

"Dear God, How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your generosity, I was able to fix a lovely dinner for my friends. We had a very nice day, and I told my friends of your wonderful gift. By the way, there was 4 dollars missing. I think it must have been those #%$#@@@ at Canada Post."

GRAB THE GLOBE AND MAIL ON TUESDAY

My bi-weekly column this week will focus on Attitude, Exercise and the importance of being needed. Check out the A Section of the National paper.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN AT LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON'S LIFE THIS WEEK!