Paris man swimming across Lake Ontario to raise funds and awareness for mental health

Kloss2Cross journey takes place this summer, August 11-12

By Casandra Turnbull

A Paris man is training his body and mind for what will be an intense journey across Lake Ontario later this summer to raise money for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation.

The gruelling challenge started out as a simple way to find himself in the pool again and swim through some of his own mental health challenges. As he rediscovered his love for swimming, his morning swims became longer and longer until one day it hit him – he needed to use his strength in the water to help support mental health and raise awareness to the fact that not everyone’s struggles are visible

Now swimming across a Great Lake seems like a wild idea to raise money for mental health, but it wasn’t entirely a new idea. In fact, this 51-kilometre swim across Lake Ontario will be his second longest swim to date, compared to his 2011 journey across Lake Huron in support of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Jason Kloss’ love for swimming dates back to his childhood and is instrumentally tied to his grandfather Dick who also swam across Lake Huron in 1991. Kloss spent a lot of time growing up with his grandparents, visiting them in the deep woods of Florida where they would canoe, hike and swim with the manatee. He described his grandparents as amazing people who were not only there for him but also hundreds of other kids they fostered over the years. So, when Kloss showed a keen interest in swimming and declared he would swim across Lake Huron to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society –a loving tribute to his grandmother Bert who was a two-time cancer survivor –naturally it was his grandfather who stepped up to coach and train him for the crossing. Kloss completed the Lake Huron trip in August 2011. It took him 26 hours and three minutes of non-stop swimming to complete the 61-kilometre trek, in which he raised $22,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society

“It was long and treacherous and almost killed me. I fell asleep several times and woke up under water, puked, hallucinated, popped my shoulder...” explained Kloss.

“But deep down I knew the cause at the time that I was raising money for and the people affected by it were going through much worse and my pain was temporary, so I had to keep going.”

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Despite the gruelling obstacles

Kloss did not give up and became the youngest swimmer to cross Lake Huron – the second person in the family to accomplish the trek, joining the record books alongside his grandfather who was the oldest person to the complete the crossing at 50 years old in 1991. After that swim, Kloss stepped back from the pool as life took him in different directions. He met his wife Avery Moore Kloss through the swim and the two eventually relocated to beautiful Paris in 2015 and welcomed their daughter Audie five years ago When Kloss found himself in a rut at work, he quit his job to pursue his lifelong dream of running his own business

SoloSquid. While all this was happening, Kloss’ idol and mentor, Dick, was struggling with dementia Alzheimer’s was taking away the man he knew and loved, and it was a difficult journey to witness. In the midst of the pandemic Dick passed away and his death was a devastating loss for Kloss

“His death hit me harder than I could have father’s death, really shifted Kloss’ perspective on mental health own daughter, nieces and nephews, his parents and friends and thought, what can I do to draw more awareness and attention to mental health? in the work and and I definitely and said Kloss. During those dark, difficult days, Kloss also received news that a close friend had died by suicide

“One day in the pool while I was swimming and thinking about all of this, I hit 5 km. Even during training for my Like Huron swim, I never hit 5 km in a pool. Then it hit me, I can swim another lake.” And that’s how this summer’s Lake Ontario swim, dubbed Kloss2Cross, was born. Kloss set a $50,000 fundraising goal to support the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation, money that will go directly to research for mental health, dementia andAlzheimer’s.

“Having a reason to swim that is bigger than ourselves is important to accomplishing a goal, especially one where you have to dig deep mental,” said Kloss, adding that his ‘why’ is to help at least one person get through a tough time.

That, combined with his grand-

“It made me wake up and realize how real Mental Health is and how we are all at risk because Mike (who took his own life) was absolutely the last person you could have imagined was struggling with any kind of mental health issues,” said Kloss So, in that moment, he decided he needed to make some big life changes. He quit his job to pursue his own business and after a 10 year break, he dipped back into the pool again, allowing the familiar feel of the water to soak up his daily struggles.

“As I swam more laps for my own mental health, I kept seeing billboards on my drive home from the pool with statistics about mental health and kids,” he shared. He thought of his

To prepare for the August 11th swim, Kloss started training three days a week for 1-3 hours each session at the Laurier Brantford YMCA pool, in addition to a fourth day of training in open water, as well as dryland activities for strength and endurance Since a large aspect of any Lake crossing is mental, Kloss said he looks for different ways to push himself to get inside his own mind and overcome what might seem like impossible obstacles.

“I look for opportunities to push myself. It can be little things like getting up at 5:30 am on -20 February morning and just making myself get out of bed and scrape the car off to drive to the pool or it can be more intense things like cold plunges and pushing myself to stay in 4C water for extended periods of time.”

During each training session it’s important to remember mind over matter and consistency always wins.

The Kloss2Cross team will be with him as he plunges into the waters of Lake Ontario in the afternoon of August 11th . He said he plans to get the night portion of the swim over with first, as it was the hardest aspect of his swim across Lake Huron. “It’s very dark and cold and it’s hard to swim through fatigue. During my Huron crossing I feel asleep a couple of times and woke up in pitch black under water This is a mental game I know my body can do it, it’s my mind that needs to be strong and centred.”

Kloss will stop to drink water every 15-20 minutes to stay hydrated. Members of the crew will hand him food and water on a stick or by tossing it to him every 45-60 minutes. To ensure the trek is successful, Kloss does not get out of the water to eat, he does so while treading water.

With the crossing scheduled just six weeks from now, Kloss is looking for volunteers to join his Kloss2Cross team. Specifically, they are looking for a paramedic or doctor to ride alongside him on a boat in case of an emergency They’re also looking for anyone to volunteer their boat for the swim. “The goal is to raise money for CAMH so getting volunteers to help is crucial and would be a huge help, so we don’t have to pay to rent a boat or hire a doctor/paramedic. Those expenses eat into how much we can raise for the CAMH Foundation,” he said. Kloss was at the Administration and Operations Committee Meeting last week to drum up local support for the Kloss2Cross swim. The committee members voted to support Kloss’ journey by offering the Paris pool for free training, but also supporting the idea of Swim-a-Thon at the Paris pool on July 16. Kloss will swim the pool all day while raising money and awareness for the cause. Details of the Swim-aThon are being finalized now.

If you’d like to support Kloss in his journey, both financially or as a volunteer, you can reach out to him at support@kloss2cross.com or follow his journey online.