Don Arnold had to compose himself when he heard the news.
Arnold and his wife Linda were visiting last week to drop off memorabilia at Touchstones Museum belonging to his former teammate and Olympic champion Lorne Loomer. The Nelson native passed away in January, and his daughters had asked Arnold to see if any of Loomer’s possessions would be appropriate to take back to his hometown.
It was good fortune then that during his stop at Touchstones, Arnold learned the city had approved a $7,000 grant to the Nelson Rowing Club in Loomer’s name.
“It’s probably one of the most significant gestures that any community since my years involved, which has been 60 years, has ever done,” said Arnold. “I have yet to see any community of any size do what Nelson has proposed to do. That in itself, from my perspective, is pretty decent [and] very significant.”
The money will put toward a new program aimed at introducing the sport to rowers aged 10 to 18. It came about after Arnold requested the club put an obit for Loomer in the Star.
Dominique Preney, the club’s head coach, thought they could do more than that.
“Rowing is not an easy sport,” said Preney. “It’s pretty challenging. So I thought, they have boats that are easier and more stable to row. A kid from 10 years old and up, they can use it so we would be able to actually have schools involved because the boats are safer.”
Preney asked Arnold for a letter of support to go with the grant application, and they were elated to hear it was accepted. Preney said the club will need around $54,000 to cover the purchase of six boats, oars, life jackets and coaching expenses for the planned program, and that the rest will be found through more grants and fundraising.
Loomer, Arnold, Walter d’Hondt and Archibald MacKinnon won Canada’s first Olympic rowing gold medal at the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia. Loomer later founded the University of Victoria’s rowing program, and taught painting classes at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts outside Victoria.
As such, Arnold had plenty of material to choose from Loomer’s life prior to contacting Touchstones. The items include the jacket Loomer was given after being inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame, a tie he was given at the Olympics and a diploma awarded to Loomer at the ‘56 Games.
“Lorne wanted the artifacts here,” said Touchstones executive director Astrid Heyerdahl. “His heart is in Nelson, he always said. So for the family we’re told it made sense to have part of his legend and his legacy here at Touchstones.”
Heyerdahl said she hopes to hold a rowing exhibit in the future that would highlight Loomer’s career. She added the museum is paying recreation more attention with the acquisition of the Summit chair from Whitewater Ski Resort as well as plans for a mountain biking exhibit in 2018.
“We want to explore more and more what is it people love in this place,” said Heyerdahl. “Yes people come here because Nelson is so specific and interesting and exciting and artistic. But they also come for the sport. They come for the adventure. So we want to showcase that more and more in our galleries.”
Arnold said Loomer would have been overwhelmed with how he’s being remembered in Nelson.
“I’ve known Lorne since 1954. We lived together, we did a lot of things together. We knew one another extremely well. Quite frankly, what has happened here is absolutely utopian.”
