NORMAN — Caitlin Baker, a 16-year-old Norman resident, has taken to heart the task of promoting healthy life skills in her peers, especially those who share her Native American heritage.
She travels the nation speaking at events, encouraging positive eating habits, active lifestyles and smart decisions.
Her advocacy led her to be one of the first youth to make the Alcatraz swim in San Francisco as part of a PATHSTAR program promoting health at the Pine Ridge Reservation in California. Baker made the swim in October 2008. A film documenting the program and the 2005 swim from Alcatraz called “From the Badlands to Alcatraz” will show at the Southern Winds Film Festival in Shawnee noon today. Baker will speak following the screening.
Baker discovered the importance of an active lifestyle about nine years ago, when she began swimming on the Sooner Swim Club. After years of trying different sports with no luck, she found she was a natural at swimming. So good, in fact, that she was selected to attend the North American Indigenous Games in 2006 in Denver, Colo. She was the only swimmer from Oklahoma to attend.
“That was the first time I had been exposed to anything on my cultural side,” she said.
Determined to see more Oklahomans at the games, she starting campaigning to recruit active youth. This got the attention of Rita Wright at the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, who spoke with her about the health plight of the Native American population and asked her to broaden her campaign to encourage active and healthy lifestyles in general.
“She’s the one that helped me get this started,” Baker said.
Her dedication to swimming and advocacy helped her to land a spot in the Alcatraz swim. Although an avid swimmer and in training for state competition at the time, Baker said the waters near Alcatraz and San Francisco presented an entire new realm of challenges.
For one, it was colder, much colder than the pools in Oklahoma. The distance also was a challenge, although Baker made the swim in 25 minutes. Baker said she found the waves and the lurking sea life as distractions as well, noting that she harbored a particular fear of all the seals in the water.
“I had fun,” she concluded, after reminiscing of her swim. “It’s so beautiful out there.”
