While many 12-year-olds daydream about swimming with dolphins, Belle Levisky dares to swim with sharks.
While many 12-year-olds daydream about swimming with dolphins, Belle Levisky dares to swim with sharks.
Levisky has been making great strides through her foundation 7 Fins Forever, as she looks to promote awareness of the importance of sharks to the oceanic ecosystem and is on a mission to ban shark fin products across the province.
Her efforts have not gone unnoticed - including from shark educator and advocate, Dr. Craig O'Connell.
O'Connell has reached out to Levisky and the young Cochranite and her family will join the @TheSharkDoctor this October for a five-day stint from California to the Guadeloupe islands in the Caribbean that will have Levisky swimming with Great White Sharks.
Most recently, the Grade 7 Mitford student was acknowledged after she wrote a letter to Senator Michael MacDonald in Ottawa to show her support for Bill S-238 - to ban the importation of shark fin products, which received final reading last month.
Levisky was thrilled to learn that she was one of three names acknowledged by MacDonald, commending her 2017 initiative that successfully resulted in the passing of a bylaw banning the sale of shark fin products in the Town of Cochrane.
"I wrote a letter to the Senate to tell them about my foundation and what I was doing ... it was really great to have Cochrane mentioned in the Senate," she smiled.
MacDonald's speech stated that Levisky's efforts were "an impressive and commendable accomplishment for any Canadian, let alone someone of such a young age ... Congratulations and thank you, Belle, for your leadership and determination to make a difference."
Levisky isn't stopping there. She plans to take her initiative to towns and cities such as Okotoks, Canmore, Banff and Crossfield before she readies to appeal to Calgary city council.
"We want to try to pass the same bylaw in Crossfield that we did in Cochrane," said the aspiring young marine biologist.
"We're just so super proud of her," said mom Gaynor Levisky. "You grow up in small town Alberta and you don't always think about what's going on in the ocean."
Gaynor said she and husband, Dave, are still in shock that their daughter has no anxieties about swimming with sharks but regardless of their personal fears, will support their daughter's adventures and help her achieve her goals.
Belle also works with local soap creator Teresa Spurgeon of PuR Botanics - Natural Artisan Bodycare, selling her spearmint and lime "shark soap" with proceeds going toward Belle's cause.
Check out Belle's Facebook page 7FinsForever to learn more.
