The roar of snowmobiles churning through prairie highway ditches next
month will be the soundtrack to a fight against cancer.
For eight days, from Jan. 24-31, 10 women in Saskatchewan and 10 in
Manitoba will hop on their snowmobiles and drive until dusk to raise
money for breast cancer research.
Each team will drive 1,600 kilometres across its province, passing
through about 30 rural communities and gathering donations along the
way.
This will be the third year for the event in Saskatchewan and the first
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for Manitoba, said ride founder Carol Tulik of Fort Qu’Appelle, Sask.
Next year there will also be 10-women teams riding through rural
Alberta and British Columbia, she said. She hopes that some day it will
be a national tour of snowmobile-riding women.
“In the wintertime in Saskatchewan, if you don’t curl, then what else
is there?”
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Canadian
women. One in nine develop it.
An estimated 20,500 women will get the diagnosis in 2002 and 5,400 will
die from it. Men can also get breast cancer. Next year 140 will be
diagnosed and 40 will die.
The Prairie Women on Snowmobiles group began as a coffee conversation
Tulik had with another avid rider. They decided they would ride across
Saskatchewan to raise money for breast cancer. Then Tulik was injured
in a motor vehicle accident.
“I can’t sled any more so I organized the ride. It helped take me out
of my slump. I put an ad in the newspaper asking for volunteer riders
and talked to Saskatchewan’s 85 snowmobile clubs.”
Tulik got her 10 women riders in 2001.
Each official rider must raise $3,000 in donations and can do the
annual ride twice. In return for their effort, local and national
businesses donate food, accommodations and fuel. Local snowmobilers in
each community on the trail are invited to ride along, especially those
gathering pledges.
Last year the ride raised $97,000 for cancer research. Tulik’s goal
this year is $150,000 for Saskatchewan alone. She said she knows it is
a bad year for farmers, but they are among her group’s biggest donors.
No one is paid to organize or ride in the event, not even Tulik who
devotes hours of time.
She said the biggest challenge for the riders is endurance, mental and
physical. In the evening most of the communities host an event at which
the riders mingle with the crowd.
“There’s a lot of sad stories come out of this. But you make a lot of
friends, too.”
Next month’s ride is even more personal to Tulik, who lost her mother
to cancer this fall.
Pat Haeusler, a grain farmer from Muenster, Sask., is praying for snow.
She is one of the 2003 core riders, which includes two women who
survived breast cancer. She and her family have been snowmobiling for
20 years and when she heard about the ride last winter, she drove in it
one day from Kinistino, Sask., to Barrier Lake.
“I have had friends and a first cousin who are breast cancer
survivors,” Haeusler said. “You just see it in your community. For
every woman, it’s a genuine concern.”
To participate, call Carol in Saskatchewan at 306-332-4965, Gayle in
Manitoba at 204-233-3214 or the Canadian Cancer Society at 877-977-4673.
Polaris, a snowmobile manufacturer, is copying the idea and has
organized a cross-Canada relay for breast cancer research. It starts
Jan. 11 in St. John’s, Nfld., and finishes March 1 in Squamish, B.C.
Three women from each province will travel across their province and
turn over their snowmobile at the border to the next trio. The purpose
is to promote women riders and raise funds for breast cancer research.
For more information, contact the company at 204-925-7100.
