Hat and Bloot to Paddlers and Dreamers
Yup, the ice will soon go – and you and your boat can glide gently once again on open waters. Life will feel right and the weight of winter will fall off your shoulders – it’s good to be Canadian in springtime…..
Squall Opens
Patti is up in the store right now unpacking boxes ready for our Friday April 1 opening ( I’m in the house typing by the fire – hah!) If you are in our area, please come by and say hi – we need your energy to melt the ice on Cole Lake.
Saturday Night at the Stockey April 2
The International REEL Paddling Film Fest is coming and we can hardly wait. Tickets are cheap ($15) and even cheaper if you are a young ‘un ($5.) Happy Hour is at 5:30 and films start at 7. Come early for the silent outdoor gear auction – better yet, you can put a bid in right now.
 Auction List It’s all to help Global Medic (globalmedic.ca) – and they truly deserve our attention. A team is presently in Japan and here is an excerpt from their news….
….we have gotten several large truckloads in and distributed them to the evacuees. Items include 50,000 diapers, 40,000 sanitary napkins, 60,000 blankets, and 36,000 cans of infant formula. We have been procuring other items like essential medicines, food, fresh vegetables, soap. The team is armed with radiation protective equipment and a dosimeter. A few hours ago Shannon and Hikaru were helicoptered in to a small island off the coast. The media reported locals drinking melted snow from a swimming pool as their only source of water. I am happy to report that we installed a Trekker. The 500 evacuees now have access to potable water. Events like this are exactly why we run a modular response team. 500 scared and isolated people that have survived the worst that mother nature can throw at them are now getting clean water funded by a member of the Canadian public and delivered by a Peel EMS supervisor, ferried in by a professional pilot volunteering his time. The current response is a tough one. Access is an issue as is fuel. We are working at a slower pace than we are used to but work is getting done. The Canadian public has responded by donating just over $180,000. It's cold there. It snows. The damage is immense and the need is great.
I encourage you to cheer on our team's efforts and tell people you know about the work with pride. We'll be making a decision shortly on the potential deployment of other teams…..
Steve Kepka
Emergency Programs Officer
DMGF - GlobalMedic
This is Tim back now – please donate to GM, bid on an auction item, come to the show, make a difference.
First Aid
There are spots available on the following courses taught by Wilderness Medical Assoc.:
Wilderness First Aid April 16/17
Wilderness Advanced First Aid April 23-26
Bridge to WFR April 27-30
Even if you aren’t outdoors that often, these courses are incredibly important and useful. I would encourage even someone as young as 14 or 15 to start taking them as the learning never stops. I would rather see a young person take a number of WFA and WAFA courses over the years, than to have them just jump in later to a WFR once and say they know what they’re doing. They often don’t, and the more times you go through this stuff, the better it sinks in.
Thanks for listening and peace out, tim |
