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OLYMPIC TORCH CROSSES CAUSEWAY - In November,1987, the Olympic Torch Relay across Canada to Calgary was carried through the Strait of Canso communities. In Port Hastings, teenager Lynn MacLean carried the torch as far as the Canso Causeway bridge where she handed it to Cyril Gillis of Port Hawkesbury. He had the difficult task of carrying a lighted torch successfully across the Canso Causeway which is a very windy open area.

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Garth Haverstock Crossing the Causeway for a Cause
1987
Canso Causeway

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Cyril Gillis handed it off to Garth Haverstock of Port Hawkesbury. Garth Haverstock had been chosen by the Muscular Dystrophy Association to participate in the relay. A special attachment to his wheelchair held the torch and he wheeled proudly to give it to Arnold MacLean, Lynn's father, at the far end of the Canso Causeway.

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Olympic Torch Crossing the Causeway for a Cause. Arnold MacLean and daughter,Lynn
1987
Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Lynn MacLean and her father Arnold of Port Hastings along with Cyril Gillis and Garth Haverstock were 4 of the 84 carriers for the Olympic Torch on its journey to the Winter Olympics in Calgary on that day.
In 1996 another torch was carried across the Causeway. Royal LePage were the main sponsors for the first Canadian Marathon for the Paralympics. People were invited to walk, run, rollerblade or participate in a wheelchair to raise funds for people and athletes with disabilities. On June 2, the Port Hawkesbury Rotary Club was responsible for the 50 kilometers from St. Peters to the Canso Causeway. Rilla McLean in her wheelchair carried the Paralympic torch from Port Hawkesbury toward the Canso Causeway, then handed it to another Rotary spouse, Joan Briggs ,in her wheelchair who did her part of the journey before passing it to Dean Rogers who wheeled it across the Causeway accompanied by Rotary spouse Sandy MacDonald.

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Dave Shannon's 'Crossing the Causeway for a Cause' supporters
16 April 1997
Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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DAVE SHANNON AND JOHN RYAN - Dave Shannon in 1997 was the first quadriplegic in a power wheelchair to cross the country raising funds for scholarships and support in the visual and performing arts for people with disabilities. Over $700 was donated for his cause at a breakfast at Smitty's Restaurant in Port Hastings overlooking the Canso Causeway. Two years later, paraplegic John Ryan handcycled across the Canso Causeway and across the country for research into spinal cord regeneration.

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ALZHEIMERS AND DUCHENNE MS - New Waterford native Jim Burns ran across Canada in 1987 to raise money and awareness for research into Alzheimer's disease. He left Vancouver on February 20 and arrived at the Canso Causeway on August 8 to the cheers of a small crowd and presenters of cheques from a number of businesses and organizations in the Strait of Canso Area.
John Davidson made history and his name in the Guiness Book of World Records when he crossed Canada in 1998. The 52 year old walked 8,272 kilometers in 286 days for the record of the fastest crossing of Canada by foot. More important than the record was his reason for walking. John's son Jesse was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in 1986 when he was five years old. Twelve years later John walked across Canada to raise money for medical research into genetic diseases and gained $2 million for his cause.

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Trans Canada Trail Crossing the Causeway for a Cause. Water from the 3 oceans will meet in Ottawa.
2000
Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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TRANS CANADA TRAIL RELAY 2000 - The Trans Canada Trail Relay 2000 saw waters from the Atlantic Ocean (left Cape Spear, Newfoundland on May 6th) the Arctic Ocean (left Tuktoyaktuk, North West Territories on February 19th) and the Pacific Ocean (left Victoria, British Columbia on April 17) carried along the Trans Canada Trail, the longest multi use trail in the world. An official welcome was organized in Port Hastings on Sunday, May 28th.Here are some of the group who met them at the Port Hastings Tourist Bureau.
The following morning Fire Chief Ian MacKinnon passed the container from the previous day to Catherine Timmons of Port Hastings. A group of local people accompanied her across the Canso Causeway to Auld's Cove where she gave the bottle of water to Phillip Hayes to continue its journey on through mainland Nova Scotia. The water carried across would be poured with the other two ocean waters into a Trans Canada Trail Fountain on September 9th in the capital of Canada's Ottawa region.

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Helen and Ole Crossing the Causeway for a Cause
20 August 2000
Canso Causeway

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VOLKSSPORT CLUB WELCOMES WALKERS - That same year on October 20, 2000, Ole Olson and Helene Viel were welcomed to Cape Breton by Phil Irons and 10 Cape Breton Island Hoppers Volkssport Club members at the Canso Causeway. All walked carefully across on the railway track. The retired couple had dipped their boots in the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk on March 30th, the Pacific Ocean in northern British Columbia in early May and then headed east where 9969 kilometers later, they dipped their boots in the Atlantic Ocean at the same spot in Newfoundland where Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope run across Canada in April 1980.
Other walkers crossed the Causeway for equally worthy causes. In 1985 Hildegard Baushhaus walked across Canada for the CNIB. Seven Lions and six Lioness of the Port Hawkesbury Club accompanied her across the Causeway and donated $430.00. Five years later, Judith Arnold rode her horse Beryl from sea to sea for the Canadian Council for the Blind. Members of the local riding club, including six year old Ashlie Pratt, welcomed her.

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'On Wings Like Eagles' tour Crossing the Causeway for a Cause
2001
Port Hawkesbury, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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STEPHANIE MCCLELLAN'S ON WINGS LIKE EAGLES TOUR - Stephanie McClellan became the first female with a disability to handcycle from Vancouver, British Columbia to Cape Spear, Newfoundland to raise awareness of the abilities of people with disabilities. Stephanie and her On Wings Like Eagles Tour members presented a workshop to some Strait of Canso area residents in Port Hawkesbury in August 2001.
At the Canso Causeway in September, 1992, RCMP officers Donnie Steele and Al Collins became the duo to continue the journey to Sydney on the provincial Terry Fox Tandem Bike Relay raising money for cancer research.