Canadian Adventurer, Mark Jennings-Bates is making a splash in Kelowna, British Columbia

Aug. 28, 2013 - PRLog -- It is thoughts like this that drive adventurer, Mark Jennings-Bates to continue to push himself and sometimes those around him to do something for a change. Often the change he is looking for is the audience to viewthe problem from the same perspective he does.

“It frustrates me immensely that a publicity stunt and a debate around whether women should bare their breasts in public in a Canadian city can capture the attention of so many people around the world and goes viral. At the same time, we have been telling the story of almost 1 billion people around the world not getting access to safe for many years and it often takes second place to more flambouyant, entertainment type news. When we discuss nudity within the framework of human rights when there are so many more urgent issues to address it seems to me that our priorities are out of alignment”

Jennings-Bates, together with paddling colleague Peter Dodenhoff will be setting off on Sunday September 1st for a 250km paddle around Okanagan Lake. Their goal is to raise awareness of the wonderful and abundant water resource we have in the Okanagan and contrast that situation to Eastern  Africa where one community alone has 96,000 people sharing one well. To reinforce the issue, Jennings-Bates will be using a Lifestraw filter to drink water from Okanagan Lake for the duration of the trip.

While the duo do not anticipate too many problems along the way, the critical issues will be the amount of continuous paddling and the winds, which can quickly reduce their progress to a slow crawl. Joining the pair of paddlers on Monday the 2nd of September will be Bob Purdy from World Paddle for the Planet who last year paddled the entire length of the lake in 19 hours and has paddled every single day for almost 1,000 days. “It will be great to chat to Bob as we paddle and get his perspective on some of the challenges we may encounter” said Dodenhoff, himself a paddleboard instructor at the Green Bay Bible Camp in West Kelowna.

For Jackie Jennings-Bates, the founder of the Rally4Life Charity, this project represents an opportunity to capitalise on local interest .“Mark and Peter have already raised close to $3,500 so I can only be excited about what can happen for the balance of the project. I am very proud of them and I encourage people to get behind what they are doing. Every $15 donated is equivalent to saving the life of a child by providing safe water for the rest of their life”

Peter and Mark will be stopping in various locations around the lake to talk to interested people about their project. They will be spending time at:

The OK Patio Cafe in Okanagan Centre on September 1st at 1pm
Rocky J’s Coffee Shop in Peachland on September 5th at 11am


To follow the pair of paddlers on their adventure, tune in to their website at www.SUP4Life.ca

Their speaking schedule will be updated as new venues are confirmed and live satellite tracking will allow you to see where they are at any time.

“We really need people to help us raise the $15,000 for one well project and we really want to encourage people to come out and paddle along with us if they can.The goal is very achievable. Aside from that we need a couple of additional volunteers with boats who would kindly run the odd item or food out to us as we paddle around the lake” added Jennings-Bates.

The project will commence at The Delta Okanagan Grand Resort and Conference Centre on Sunday morning at 9am.

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CONTACT:    Mark Jennings-Bates 250 859 4893