SECRET PASSIONS THAT BRING US JOY

Teacher by day and Ironman by night. IT professional by necessity and airplane pilot by choice. Business school graduate by design and waterski master by calling. Hidden among the many talents and skills of the RSGC community can be found other worlds characterized by passion, determination and perseverance. These second lives are no secret to friends and family—but may not be visible to the rest of us. In this article, we share the stories of a handful of trailblazers, boundary pushers and self-reinventors you may not know you know. They are stories of vision and joy.

LEANNE MLADEN

SENIOR SCHOOL ART TEACHER / ROLLER SKATING ENTHUSIAST

Leanne Mladen views the art room as a special place where students are able to experiment, practice, take risks and build confidence. That’s also how she views lakeside trails, city parks and open lots when it comes to her pursuit of roller skating. They’re like empty canvasses that inspire a journey of discovery. Or of rediscovery. “I roller skated in elementary school up until Grade 9,” said Leanne. “For decades, it was just something I did ‘back in the day.’ Then, about 10 years ago, I saw the coolest skates at a skateboard shop. I decided I had to have them. Since then, I’ve been roller skating and roller dancing, and finding places to practice. It’s daily exercise that feels like play.” Leanne has always had two passions: athletics and art. She feels privileged to share the art room with her students, building a community of belonging where everyone is comfortable exploring their personal vision. When she heads home for the day, she explores her own creativity on her skates.

Leanne has always had two passions: athletics and art. She feels privileged to share the art room with her students, building a community of belonging where everyone is comfortable exploring their personal vision. When she heads home for the day, she explores her own creativity on her skates. This fall, Leanne decided to test her skills at a skatepark and, she says, did pretty well right away—allowing for the learning curve. “Yes, I fall sometimes,” she laughed. “That’s what happens when you try new things. I wear my helmet and wrist guards, but there’s a bit of risk that comes with the fun. It’s okay to fall down. Kids do it all the time. Sometimes, we adults could use the reminder that mistakes and mishaps are okay. It’s freeing not to be fearful.” Leanne has found the skatepark to be a positive and encouraging place, with everyone excited when she masters a new trick. This winter, she will be taking one-on-one lessons at a different, indoor skatepark to improve her halfpipe skills. Then in the spring, it’s back outside to meet up with her fellow skaters. “Kids make friends at the playground, and so have I at the local lot and the parks. Taking up an activity and finding others who share it is a great way to meet people and build community while having fun.”

GRAHAM WHITE ’92, FATHER OF CONNOR WHITE, CLASS OF 2024

IT PROFESSIONAL / FLYING FANATIC

Graham White is happy to talk about his work in information technology if asked. He’s a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the field and plenty of wisdom to share. But if you want to see a fire alight in his eyes, ask about piloting airplanes. Back in his mid-20s, Graham earned his private license and flew recreationally for a few years. But work, marriage, children and life in general pushed him away from his passion. A career in aviation was not in the cards. But now that the kids are older, he’s back to what he loves doing. After earning a commercial license in 2019, Graham is currently working towards the additional ratings and hours that would allow him to be hired as a pilot for a commercial airline. “Flying is not like riding a bike,” said Graham. “It takes ongoing practice to maintain an exceptional skill level, plus you need the required hours in the air to make it to the airlines. The pandemic has made it harder to log those hours. My goal of working full-time as a commercial pilot hasn’t been impacted by recent events, but the timeline has stretched a bit.”

Because it’s been hard to get flight school time over the past year and a half, Graham decided to purchase a small airplane with a friend this year. That frees him up to log the flight hours he needs that have been difficult to accrue. Once he earns his qualification, his professional dream is to “fly most days” locally, not internationally. He’s not particular about the specific aircraft and would love to join an outfit like Porter Airlines as a regional pilot. What is it about flying that has kept Graham’s passion alive his whole life? “Up in the sky is my happy place,” he said. “It’s like being in a state of flow: the perfect mix of challenge and joy. I love the view. I love being in control. I’m a bit of a cross between two pilot types: the cowboy and the super nerd. The machinery itself is as stimulating as the sense of freedom.” While Graham’s family is sometimes uneasy about going up in the small planes he pilots, they are 100 per cent onside with supporting his passion. And this past summer, he flew his wife and two kids to Kincardine for a beach day. “Everyone had a great time—and it was one of the most glorious days of my life!”

DREW BLANCHETTE ’96

JUNIOR SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER / IRONMAN IDEALIST

Sports and athletics have always been a big part of Drew Blanchette’s life—to challenge himself, to benefit others and to help the boys at RSGC develop lifelong healthy habits. So, is it a surprise that he’s been competing in triathlons for the past decade? Perhaps not. But not everyone knows that he’s a bit of a challenge junky. Once he meets one stretch goal, he’s right onto setting the next. Drew made a move into extreme sports one summer with two entry-level events: a bike ride from Hamilton to Toronto as one leg of a national ride to support childhood cancer and a “Try-a-Tri” challenge designed to introduce new competitors to triathlons on a smaller scale. “I felt like I almost died during the swim portion,” Drew laughed. “But it was awesome. After these two events, I decided to do the full national ride for childhood cancer the following year, from Vancouver to Halifax. My team leapfrogged with another, so I rode half the total distance over 12 days. I loved every minute of it.” After jumping from beer league hockey to cycling about 200 kilometres per day, Drew naturally asked himself, “What now?” The answer: an Ironman competition in Lake Placid.

“I thought it would be one and done,” he said. “You know, just see if I could finish and then cross it off the list. Well, I’ve now done nine and I’m working to get into the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.” That’s not an easy feat. Spots go to professional athletes and to the highest-ranking competitors in their age category. Drew won’t qualify either of those ways, so he’s focused on the legacy program. Completing 12 Ironman competitions gets hopeful participants into a lottery system and a good chance of being selected within a few years. Drew’s got his tenth and eleventh competitions coming up in summer 2022. In addition to enjoying pushing himself to his mental and physical limits, Drew appreciates the community of competitors he has come to know, including some family members who have gotten involved. “I compete against myself,” said Drew. “I also train and participate for my mental health—I achieve a state of mindfulness in it. But the biggest piece is the sense of community. It’s the same at RSGC for the boys. Everyone helps each other to achieve their goals. It’s a positive, uplifting environment.”

AUSTIN COOK ’14 AND HUNTER COOK ’16

REAL ESTATE BROKERS / WATERSKIING BOSSES

There are a lot of Cook brothers and they are a lot of things. Austin is a Western graduate working in commercial real estate. Hunter has a business degree from Dalhousie and is studying real estate. Monty ’19 is in the agriculture program at Cornell University and on the D1 lacrosse team. Griffin ’21 is in his first year at Western in management and organizational studies. But despite their different locations, interests and aptitudes, they share one abiding passion: water sports. And they have turned that passion into a thriving business. “We’re an aquatic family,” said Hunter. “We always spent our summers on the water at the family cottage. As we got older, Austin and I worked as waterski instructors at a resort. One day, we decided that we would rather work for ourselves. So, five years ago, we started Muskoka Mafia.” Muskoka Mafia has a simple and unique differentiator: the Cook brothers bring their specialized skills and all necessary equipment to clients’ cottages. Each day, starting at about 6:30 am and going until sundown, the boys work with individual families, providing a few hours of activities on the water to each before moving on to the next. And cottage country can’t get enough of them. They were fully booked last summer and had to turn prospective clients away.

With their success, they’ve asked themselves a few questions. Should they expand and take on staff whose last names aren’t Cook? Should they sell their business to those who have made offers? In both cases, the answer has been no. “We love the challenge of running this business,” said Hunter. “We don’t want to give that up. But even more, we love being together as a family. We’re apart for most of the year now, but in the summer, we get to be on the water and work with great families who trust us and inspire us to continually improve. The best thing about what we do is being together. The second-best thing is the smiles on kids’ faces when they learn how to ski. We don’t want to give any of it up.” Hunter credits RSGC with building the brothers’ confidence and with cultivating their bold, entrepreneurial spirit. He also says that being alumni has helped their business. “When we put ourselves out there, we’re respected and appreciated for being members of this school community.”

SARAH JESSANI

SENIOR SCHOOL MATH TEACHER / PAINTING IMPERFECTIONIST

Sarah Jessani always wanted to be a teacher. She loves the challenge that math provides her and her students, and the creativity involved in finding solutions. In the classroom, she emphasizes effort over outcomes, helping students to develop a growth mindset. Those with a growth mindset focus on learning as their goal, aren’t preoccupied with getting everything right, don’t give up easily and achieve better results. Sarah is a master at establishing this constructive culture in her classroom. But when it came to her love of drawing and painting, she harboured a perfectionist streak. For a long time, Sarah was focused on replicating realist images to perfection, diligently following the procedures that would ensure a flawless outcome. A realist painting has a very defined end goal and can be “graded” on how well it achieves it. “I was always into abstract art—I just love how it looks,” said Sarah. “But it was a bit too ‘go with the flow’ for me. It wasn’t rule-based. So, while I admired it, I didn’t do it myself.”

That is, until Sarah had a baby and spent 18 months on maternity leave. Often confined to the house because of the pandemic, she set up a space for a studio, purchased supplies and started experimenting with a new approach. “I decided that I needed to be okay with things not working out,” she said. “I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I decided to go all in and see what would happen if I gave up control. That was key for me—for my art and for my life. I can’t control everything. I can’t be perfect. It was very freeing to give that up and focus more on the process. It was also a bit chaotic and messy.” Moving away from perfection has taught Sarah to be more flexible in her thinking and in her art. It has also been good for her mental health. “It took courage for me to make this change. I had to learn to just start somewhere and see what happens. I tell the kids all the time, ‘it’s good to take risks, it’s good to experiment.’ I had to take those lessons to heart myself, and it’s been really important for me as an artist, a parent and a person.”