Grant Recipient Reports

The below report was prepared by CAF grant recipient Keith Nicol of Corner Brook, NL regarding his on-going Newfoundland Avalanche Education Programme funded by the Canadian Avalanche Foundation (CAF).

 

 2008/09 CAF Western Newfoundland Report

During the winter of 2008-09 the CAF provided funds to support avalanche awareness programmes in Western Newfoundland. This report will present how this money was spent and will briefly discuss the fundraising events that were held to raise money for the CAF.

One of the key successes for the winter of 08/09 were the presentations given to a variety of snowmobile and Search and Rescue (SAR) groups. Snowmobile clubs in Stephenville and Corner Brook as well as SAR groups in Deer Lake, Corner Brook and Stephenville were given 1-hour presentations. Last year these groups were approached but due to scheduling and other issues no presentations were given. There is a growing awareness of snow safety and this year these groups were very keen to receive information about avalanches. Most of these presentations were 1-hour in length although I also did a 3-hour session for the local RCMP contingent which was well received. It involved officers from a variety of detachments. A session was also given to the Stephenville Nordic Ski Club which was missed in the previous year. Overall there were roughly 100 people involved in these adult sessions.

School visits were also a success this year and we managed to get to several schools that were missed last year. We also experimented with different presentation formats but most of these were in a 1-hour format. We did a 2-hour session with 3 groups which proved to be very popular. The first hour involved an indoor session and the second hour involved beacon searches and probing/shovelling for "victims" in the snow. In one case I was assisted by a warden from Gros Morne Park who helped bury a "dummy" in the snow. She also had extra beacons that could be used for each group. Overall roughly 263 students were involved with these visits to 6 schools.

Promoting avalanche awareness and the mission of the CAF was done through CBC radio on two occasions as well as in local newspaper coverage. I also did several You Tube videos that promoted avalanche awareness in Western Newfoundland, which have proved to be quite popular. One You Tube video has received over 3000 views. They can be seen by going to You Tube and searching under k2nicol. If you search You Tube under the name "Canadian Avalanche Foundation" you will see that name associated with these videos from Western Newfoundland. In addition I ran two AST Level 1 courses that had a total of 8 people attend. These courses were mainly taken by students from a local community college although one SAR person and one outdoor education instructor also took the course. I also have a popular website which features information about avalanches in Western Newfoundland and the CAF. It is one of the most popular websites on the topic of "Avalanches in Newfoundland" according to Google.

Fundraising for the CAF involved several initiatives. We were able to raise close to $800 for the CAF which was derived from video sponsorship, selling of videos and a silent auction and screening of The Fine Line. The later attracted about 35 people and proved to be quite successful with various local businesses and the CAF donating items for the silent auction.

Keith Nicol
Sir Wilfred Grenfell College-Memorial University
Corner Brook, NL
www.swgc.mun.ca/~knicol

Note: Keith Nicol has been awarded his fourth CAF grant for the winter of 2009/10 to continue his education in Newfoundland.