Following a call to order and the reading of the District Land Acknowledgment statement by President Doug, members were treated to the August 2019 playing of O Canada by a delightful diverse group of young people from Ottawa who called themselves “OrKidstra”. President Doug chose the following quotation from Paul Harris published in the Rotarian in September 1912 as the Thought for the Week – “The importance of placing and maintaining Rotary standards and ideals aloft cannot be overestimated. The star of hope in the Rotary ethical firmament must be high. It is hardly possible for it to be too high. May it be high enough so that there will always be something to strive for.”
ROTARY MOMENTS
In lieu of a “Changeover Meeting” (since President Doug has agreed to stay on as club president for a second year), a couple of changes were announced:
The D5550 Governor for 2021-2022is Dan Sutton.
The RI President for the coming Rotary year is Shekhar Mehta, whose theme is Serve to Change Lives and he encourages all Rotarians to become more involved in service projects. In addition, RI President Mehta asks members to focus their efforts on empowering girls to ensure their access to education, resources, services, and opportunities. President Mehta also encourages clubs to increase membership by having every member bring one person to join Rotary within the next 12 months. His goal is to grow Rotary membership from 1.2 million to 1.3 million members.
President Doug would like to see our club focus on the core programs and projects from past years, particularly in the Assiniboine Forest.
Eventually, we expect to be meeting again in person at Breezy Bend when it is safe to do so, but even so, President Doug anticipates that the club will have hybrid meetings (members choose to meet in person or online, depending on their location and circumstances).
The most recent Charleswood Rotary Chase the Ace Lottery winner is Nancy Morris, whose take was $28. Advertising the lottery with Home Lottery Winnipeg one week had resulted in a doubling in the number of people buying tickets in that week.
Treasurer Dave informed the group that quite a few people have been mailing in their club dues ($240 each). All have been paid in full.
PDG Nancy introduced our guest with the following words: “22 years ago Tanya and her husband Hank walked away from their jobs and life in the city to chase their dream of building a dogsled tour business around their beloved Siberian Huskies, love of dogsledding and the wilderness. The lessons and stories they have learned on their business adventure and also from Hank and their dogs competing in six 1000 mile races in Alaska and the Yukon, speak to perseverance, listening to your heart, overcoming challenges and believing in yourself. Through 2 books and corporate and organizational presentations Tanya shares messages and stories to inspire, entertain and touch people's hearts. Hank & Tanya share their lives with their 4 children, 150 huskies and 5 cats in Ontario's wilderness.”
Tanya and husband Hank were newlyweds – she a student, he a milwright - living and working in Guelph with two cats - when they got smitten by an adorable red and white Siberian Husky pup in a local mall’s pet store. They bought it after their third visit in three days to the pet store. It turned out that the purchase of that dog changed the trajectory of their lives. The pup would run away, chase the cats, and trashed their apartment. They read every book they could find to learn about Huskies and one of those books was called “Race Across Alaska” by Libby Riddles, who was the first woman to win the Aditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (an annual 1000 mile event from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska). After reading that book, they learned more about the culture and history of their dog and they were both smitten by Alaska, the north, winter and dogsledding. Huskies are pack animals, so the family bought another Husky to accompany their pup “Colt”. Following this, they both saw the movie “Iron Will”, which was about a 522-mile dogsled race that took place in 1917 between Winnipeg, MB and St Paul, Minnesota. They decided that they HAD to try dog-sledding and bought two more Huskies and a dogsled. Then they bought three more dogs to have two teams – one for Tanya and one for Hank. By then Tanya had graduated and was driving an hour and a half to work as an environmental engineer while Hank was travelling all over Ontario. Problems with a project to destroy PCBs at work resulted in Tanya feeling ill as she drove to work every morning. A phone call from a friend suggested turning their love for dogs into a business. They decided to do that, prepared a business plan and finally found a banker in Huntsville (who was retiring in a month’s time) that was willing to finance their business plan. In September 1999, both quit their jobs, rented out their house, loaded up their trailer with their 7 dogs and 4 cats and headed out on a 4-hour drive to their new home in the wilderness near Haliburton. When they arrived around midnight, (Tanya was 8 months pregnant with their first child at the time) they expected to find a new home and a new kennel waiting for them there but discovered that only the kennel had been partially built (no hydro or water either). That kennel was finished with the help of friends and family and that was where they lived with their newborn son and dogs as they started their business and served 200 people that first winter. In the early spring, Hank and their team of Huskies took part in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska (along with ~80 other 16-dog teams, one team released from the starting chute every two minutes). Three days into the race, concerned Tanya flew to McGrath to check out Hank and the dogs, all of whom were just fine. However, the next day, Hank and the dogs had gone across an “overflow” on the Yukon River. The dogs were fine but Hank had got his boots wet. In the evening, trying to join up with a group having a party, he got lost and discovered that he couldn’t feel his feet. After feeding and bedding down the dogs, he decided to sleep in his “-40” sleeping bag but couldn’t take his boots off – so he left them on as he crawled into the special sleeping bag. The temperature dropped to -45 that night and Hank discovered that not only could he not feel his feet, he also couldn’t feel his hands. In addition, his zipper was stuck because it was covered in ice. While accepting the fact that he would likely have to die inside his sleeping bag, he thought about what was going to happen to his dogs. That was the motivation he needed to find a way to get out of that sleeping bag. Moving a section of the toggle that was out of the ice back and forth with his teeth finally got the ice to break, Hank worked his way out of the sleeping bag, then ran back and forth along the sleeping dogs until he got the circulation going again into his feet and hands. Lesson learned – to be able to take care of the dog team (or your family, etc.), Hank first had to take care of himself. At this point, Tanya shared a Powerpoint presentation showing Hank and the dogs at a dogsled race. She then concluded this by saying that Hank did not complete that first Aditarod Dog Sled Race because after that night, the Race Marshall decided that Hank’s team was not moving fast enough and they were pulled from the race. One person’s decision resulted in the $50,000 spent to get to that race and the 13 years of training was all gone! Hanks self-confidence was gone, he felt he was a failure, he wouldn’t talk to people and he needed help that Tanya knew he would not accept. When Tanya suggested a year later that they sign up again for the Aditarod, Hank rejected the idea outright. However, when he agreed to take on another 1000 mile race – the Yukon Quest – Tanya knew she had her husband back! The team finished the Yukon Quest race and the next year they attended to some unfinished business – the Aditarod – and finished that, too!
In the Q&A that followed the presentation, we learned the following:
Mushers will give up their chance to win a race to help another team.
Their business teaches customers to drive a team of dogs themselves – although a guide with his/her own team of dogs accompanies them on a dogsled tour.
To feed 150 dogs, the main food is fish-based kibble. When they are racing, they eat a lot of meat (straight out of the local grocery stores) as well.
One does not have to go to Alaska to do a dogsled tour. There are several businesses in Hudson Bay, a few kennels in Alberta and a business in Richer, MB that do dogsled tours – typically between January and mid-March.
Most of Tanya’s and Hank’s dogs come from their own dogs’ litters (typically 1 or 2 litters per year). Other dogs that come to them now are mostly rescues or strays.
Dog retirement age depends on the dog. Some dogs retire when they are 10-11 years old. Some are still going at 13-14 years of age. Some of the older dogs will go on a hunger strike if they’re not allowed to run.
Tanya & Hank’s dogs typically lived to ages of 12-13 years but now they live to 14-16 years of age and they have two in the kennel that are 17 years old. The main cause of dog death at those ages is cancer.
There is no preference for male or female dogs. However, since male dogs are typically larger than the females, they would be placed closest to the sled because that’s where more stamina is needed. There is an extra challenge at a race, however, if and when the females come into heat.
There are no polar bears in the race run in Alaska. However, they do appear along the Hudson Bay Quest dogsled race, which Hank has run. The advice from the local mushers there is to carry 20-30 extra kg of meat in the sled – just throw some of it for the polar bears to slow them down and you keep on going!
Glenn thanked Tanya for her amazing story, adding that he has a picture of his wife and himself with a dogsled team of 6 dogs in Mont Tremblant, Quebec and visitors are always drawn to that picture – because of the beautiful dogs.
Books by Tanya McCready include - Iditarod Dreamer: A Rookie Team’s Journey (The Winterdance Tetralogy) and - Journey of 1000 Miles: A Musher and His Huskies' Journey on the Yukon Quest's Century Old Klondike Trails (The Winterdance Tetralogy)
After welcoming our guests this evening – Lorena Andrade, Luis Jativa, Jagdish Khatter and guest speaker Tanya McCready – Sarge Mike thanked Elaine for assembling a list of all the Happy Bucks announced during the Zoom meetings in the 2020-2021 Rotary year. He reminded members that they can e-transfer their Happy Bucks to PDG Ed. Sarge Mike than asked for some Happy Bucks at this first meeting of the 2021-2022 Rotary year.
HAPPY BUCKS
The first happy buck of the 2021-2022 Rotary year came from Lloyd who had enjoyed rendition of O Canada by OrKidstra, as it had reminded him of his daughter who was part of a National Youth Orchestra some time ago that travelled across the country. She now plays with the Calgary Symphony Orchestra. He predicted that the Kids we watched playing O Canada are “likely to be going places”.
Lyle was happy to be back from visiting Thompson for 5 days where he did some fishing. He had another happy buck because while there Autopac settled with a fair price for his truck.
Rod recently enjoyed his 4-day visit to the Duck Mountains (which he’d never visited before), where he stayed at the Blue Lakes campground.
PDG Nancywas looking forward to having her second cataract removed tomorrow.
Sarge Mike was happy to report that he had run into member Ed Toews at Home Depot a couple of days ago and learned that Ed’s son was expected to be coming home today.
Jagdish had an unhappy buck – deer had jumped over the fence surrounding his vegetable and herb garden and ate almost half of everything growing there. Lyle suggested that Jagdish will have to change his diet from vegetables to venison. Jagdish indicated that he has installed an LED lamp and a motion sensor and hopes that will scare the deer off.
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
Jack remembered that he has a birthday this week.
NEXT MEETING
We will be meeting again on Monday, July 12th.
Our guest speaker will be Christine Reid, Homestay Facilitator of the Pembina Trails School Division home hosting program. There will also be a new member induction.
