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By Windspeaker.com Staff
With files from Jeremy Harpe of CFWE-FM
The Voyageur Brigade Society is planning Big Canoe paddles to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary. There are Big Canoe journeys planned for the Sunshine Coast, Athabasca River, Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario, as well as in Ottawa, along St. John River, and in Prince Edward Island.
The Fort Edmonton Brigade, specifically, is reaching out to Aboriginal youth to invite participation in its upcoming paddles through and around Edmonton.
Brigade participants will be helping the communities of Devon, Edmonton, and Fort Saskatchewan, and the historic sites of Fort Edmonton and Victoria Settlement celebrate Canada’s anniversary.
There is a four-day Big Canoe paddle June 29 through July 3 through Edmonton, said Brigade Chair Mark Lund, then a small boat paddle for solo canoes and kayaks on Canada Day morning starting from Devon to Fort Edmonton.
And there is a Métis Crossing Camp-out and paddle (south of Smoky Lake, upstream of Victoria Settlement) on the Canada Day long-weekend over Sunday and Monday. This event will include a supper and voyageur dance on the last evening.
A brigade membership is required at a cost of $15, and then the cost of the paddle ranges from $125 for the four-day event to $55 for the small boat paddle, which includes a breakfast and day entry to Fort Edmonton, plus shuttle back to Devon, and the cost is less for the camp out, Lund told Jeremy Harpe of CFWE-FM.
“Right now we have over 400 paddlers registered in various brigades,” Lund said. The Fort Edmonton brigade has about 100 paddlers registered in Big Canoes, with registration just starting in the two small boat events.
Information can be found on the website at http://voyageurbrigade.org/