Help us raise the funds for murals for Lesley Tashlin, Haliburton’s first Olympian and Taly Williams, first student from Haliburton Highlands Secondary School to play in the Canadian Football League.

On the outside of the A. J. LaRue Community Centre, in the village of Haliburton, in the Municipality of Dysart et al, are five large murals painted to celebrate the achievements of local sports heroes.

The first two murals recognized long-time NHL stars Ron Stackhouse, who played in the 1970’s and 1980’s and Bernie Nicholls, who played in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Twenty years later a donor came forward to add more murals for more recent local sports heroes, CFL football player, Mike Bradley. (2000’s) and NHL hockey players Cody Hodgson (2010’s) and Matt Duchene, (2010’s and 2020’s).

However, two significant local athletes from the 1990’s were missed, the brother and sister pair of Lesley Tashlin and Taly Williams. 

Lesley Tashlin was an OFSSA champion in high school, and went on to become the fastest female 100-meter hurdler in 1995 in Canada. She competed in 6 major international competitions: the Pan-Am Games (x2), the Commonwealth Games (x2), the Francophone Games, and the grandest stage of them all: the Olympic Games in 1996.

Her brother, Taly Williams, was a star athlete in track and football in high school, studied engineering and played football at the University of Waterloo and went on to become a CFL defensive back with the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 1990s.

Both Lesley and Taly have gone on to significant success in their subsequent careers.

Twenty-five years after Lesley and Taly’s athletic successes, students from a 7-8 French Immersion class at J. D. Hodgson Elementary School learned about the accomplishments of these athletes, and also discovered their omission from the local “wall of sports heroes”. The students began to question why these athletes had been excluded and decided that it was time for them to be added to the wall.

Not only were they the first Olympian and the first CFL player from Haliburton, Lesley would be the first woman and Taly and Lesley the first Black athletes to be honoured. 

The students did their research, got letters of commendation and approached the Municipal Council to present the history of Lesley and Taly’s accomplishments and inquire about their absence from the Mural Wall of Sports Heroes. Although it took some time and further advocacy, the students were successful in their quest and received Council’s approval. 

The next step is to raise the money required for the murals!

Our fundraising goal is $30,000.

How you can contribute.

  1. You can make a donation on our GoFundMe page and donate by PayPal or credit card or debit card.
  2. If you would like to receive a tax receipt: Make a donation of $50 or more to the Municipality of Dysart et al: and get a charitable donation receipt:

Here is how you do it:

By Cheque:
  • Make your cheque out to ''Municipality of Dysart et al''
  • In the note section on the cheque write: Donation for the mural wall.
  • Include with your cheque your full name and address (Street number plus P.O. Box if applicable)
  • Mail it to Municipality of Dysart  et al P.O. Box 389, Haliburton ON K0M 1S0. Payments can be dropped off at the municipal drop box located to the left of the public entrance.
By e-transfer

Send an e-transfer from your bank account to ar@dysartetal.ca 

  • Use the Question: What is the code for the mural wall
  • Contact Cindy Watson at the municipal office at (705) 457 - 1740 x. 630.
  • Write: 'Mural Wall donation' in the comment section.
  • Once you have made the e-transfer send a second email to ar@dysartetal.ca with your full name and street address plus P.O box (if you have one) so the municipality can issue a charitable donation receipt to you.

Share this information with your friends, family and colleagues on social media!

 

Calling all Mural Artists

The Municipality of Dysart et al is looking for proposals and quotes from artists interested in creating murals to honour our local sports heroes Lesley Tashlin and Taly Williams.

Deadline for Submissions: Friday August 13, 2021 by 3:00 pm

Guidelines and application form

Contact Us

Subscribe iconSubscribe to this Page