In writing this article, we first want to acknowledge Leslie's friends and family who have done an amazing job of keeping her memory alive.  While reading over the great number of newspaper articles, speeches, websites, and memorials one gets a true feeling of the full impact Leslie had on anyone who was blessed to have spent time with her. Her friend, and colleague Mandy Payne might have said it best "Once you're a part of her family, you're always a part of her family, and when you were around her, you constantly strived to be remotely as good a person as she was." As a women's basketball program, we still feel Leslie's impact, strive to keep her legacy strong, and celebrate her on this the 10^th anniversary of her passing. Thank you Leslie, for the example you have set for all of us and the support your memory still provides to the young women in our program.


 
Leslie's Story
 
When Leslie was deciding what university she was going to attend, she had two conflicting forces in her life.  Her parents, Barb and Ted had both attended Western, had been varsity athletes, and were loyal Mustangs. There was the draw to follow in their footsteps, but many in Barb's family had attended Queens University. At one point, her grandfather went as far as offering a car to influence her decision towards the school in Kingston.  We are all fortunate that she resisted the urge of a free vehicle and decided to continue her athletic and academic pursuits at Western.
 
Leslie became a Mustang in the fall of 1982 after a successful career at Stayner Collegiate. She was a member of the program for 4 years as she completed her Bachelor of Arts (Physical Education) working her way into a starting role for her last 2 years. In an article about her and her "Dribbling Sibling" Jeff, she revealed two traits that she consistently demonstrated at Western and in her life afterwards. The first was her desire to have fun and never lose sight that life was to be enjoyed and not taken too seriously. Leslie was quoted as saying, "It's the little things that you're going to remember the most. The trips, and the friendships. Women play the game a little differently than men do. I think we have more fun. We both play hard and we both want to win but I think we enter sports with a better attitude for having fun.". The second was her selfless nature and putting others ahead of herself.  She was quick to pass even though she did not lack for confidence, "I'm like my brother, we're both typical playmakers that usually look to pass the ball first before shooting it. I think I'm a good passer, a heads-up player although I should shoot more.".  Leslie's fun-loving nature and her selfless approach to life would go a long way to making her an impactful teacher, coach, partner, sister, daughter, advocate, volunteer, teammate, colleague, and so much more.
 
On June 28, 1988, just as Leslie was completing her first year of teaching and coaching at Medway High School, her life would be changed forever. On that date, she was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Several rounds of chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant which her sister Marnie was the donor, and months of therapy tested but never broke Leslie. She relied on her support group and called on the traits that she developed as an athlete to get her through. Although she admitted there were tough times, there were still moments of humour like the Hulk Hogan poster captioned "Get your butt out of bed" hanging on her hospital room wall. She would make it through this test to rejoin her colleagues and students at Medway High School.
 
Leslie had developed all the skills needed to become a great teacher. She threw herself into her work teaching Science and Phys-Ed, while also acting as Athletic Director from 2005-2011. She coached boys and girls basketball, soccer, and golf.  Her teams won numerous conference and district championships, but her efforts were not solely focused on athletes. Medway guidance counsellor Brad McGhie recalled "She was in your face with enthusiasm, with no reservations. It didn't matter if you weren't an athlete. Even the weakest kid athletically would have their best performances in her class and she'd do it with (boosting) confidence."
 
In this time Leslie also became an advocate for cancer research and organ transplant awareness. She competed in the World Transplant Games winning gold medals in the team 3km road race in 2005 (London, ON), co-ed volleyball in 2007 (Thailand), as well as golf and the 800m both in 2009 (Australia). At Medway, she incorporated a unit on organ transplantation every year in her grade 11 Phys-Ed class. Also, in place of wedding gifts, her and her husband John Michielsen accepted donations totaling $10,000 for Leukemia research. Her selfless spirit was only magnified by all that she had been through.
 
On May 11^th, 2011 Leslie was taken far too soon after a second battle with cancer. In her last two weeks, she helped organize a charity event to raise money for athletes attending the World or Canadian Transplant Games. She had expected 50 people to attend, however, over 100 showed up on the day. Leslie coordinated the event, that would eventually include her name, with an oxygen tank by her side.
 
Thousands of students and hundreds of athletes had their lives positively impacted by Leslie at Medway High School. Her contributions were recognized when they named their new facility the "Leslie Petter Memorial Gymnasium". The Canadian Transplant Association renamed the event she helped found "The Leslie Petter Memorial Transplant Trot". At Western, we remember Leslie with "The Leslie Petter Memorial Award", which has awarded scholarships totaling over $35,000.
 
Award Recipients:
2012 – Jenny Vaughan
2013 – Mackenzie Puklicz
2014 – Maddy Horst
2015 – Julia Curran
2016 – Laura Graham
2017 – Emma Johnson
2018 – Katie Bastedo
2019 – Rachel Fradgley
2020 – Ariane Saumure
 
This award has been made possible by generous donations from Leslie's friends, family, teammates, colleagues, and those inspired by her story. Our program continues to support this scholarship and celebrate Leslie's life by running an annual "Leslie Petter Memorial Game".  This game was unfortunately unable to occur in 2020-21, but we look forward to resuming this event in the fall of 2021 or as soon as scheduling allows.
 
On behalf of our whole Women's Basketball Program, we would like to say thank you to those that continue to keep Leslie's memory alive in their thoughts, actions, and words. But mostly, we would like to say thank you Leslie for your continued positive impact on our program and your incredible legacy.
 
If you would like to donate to the scholarship in Leslie's name, please use the following link: CLICK HERE