Parksville’s Hazelman family celebrated the importance of goal-setting on a cold October morning at Parksville Community Park.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Tallie Hazelman, 5, the eldest of three siblings, reached her goal and jumped into the ocean for a 100th consecutive day. At high tide the Hazelmans went down to Parksville Community Park to finally complete a goal Tallie set in June.
Thomas Hazelman, Tallie’s father and family pastor at the Oceanside Community Church, first got the idea when he’d been dating his wife when she lived with her family in the Okanagan. He noticed that they “almost never jumped in the lake in the summer.”
“I would always tell them that they didn’t deserve the lake. And I always said that if I lived by a nice body of water, I would really take advantage of it.”
When they moved to Parksville in June 2019, he knew he had to “put his money where his mouth was.”
Ellie Hazelman, Tallie’s mother and Thomas’s wife, said that once Thomas started counting each day, Tallie wanted to reach 100 days herself. Thomas had already reached 118 days when Tallie decided to set the goal. Her favourite part was being able to complete it with her dad, she said.
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Their middle child, Israel, completed 50 days jumping into the ocean as well.
However since their family hasn’t consecutively been in Parksville since the challenge started, Thomas created a rule that could freeze Tallie’s streak until they could get back. The only catch being that she had to jump into cold water everyday, wherever she was. And when they returned, the streak would continue with her first jump back into the ocean.
“When we go away and there’s no water, we jump in the bathtub,” said Tallie.
Ellie said when they originally moved to Parksville last August she’d been nine months pregnant with their youngest, Max, and couldn’t “get as much out of the beach” as they hoped.
“This summer was our first full summer to take advantage of it.”
When asked if she wanted to do 100 jumps next year, Tallie shook her head vigorously. Ellie suggested setting a different goal for next year.
After her final jump Tallie announced, as soon as she was out of the water, that “we’re having a new baby!”
Tallie is excited to be a big sister for the third time next March.