On June 1 2009, Tony Ebdon and Chris Petrie will embark on a 2500 kilometer canoe trip from Fort Edmonton to Fort Prince of Wales at Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson’s Bay. It’s the same river trail as the historic voyageurs and fur traders once traveled. We expect to be living in Canada’s wilderness for two and a half months and encounter wildlife such as black bears, brown bears, polar bears, beluga whales, owls, moose and more!

Until then, as directors of the Canadian Shield, we have several environmental and community oriented initiatives to complete with the help of a $5,000 grant from the Alberta EcoTrust Foundation. Projects involved include:

1. Building 50 birdhouses from recycled wood then place them in trees in Alberta’s river valley system.

2. As block captains for Capital City Clean-Up, we have organized a few garbage clean-up events in our community and pledged to clean-up as much garbage between Edmonton and Churchill.

3. On May 30th, we are hosting a community event at the Rio Terrace Community Center. Registered as ‘Explorers’ with Leave No Trace Canada we will be teaching a zero-impact camping scenario. Chris and Tony will also present an education piece of the historical relevance of the fur trade in Edmonton. This event will host a BBQ, a presentation from One Simple Act and a celebration to the residents who pitched in to clean-up.

4. In association with Alberta Water Quality Awareness we will be conducting water quality testing at points between Edmonton and Churchill.

We are working to raise $10,000 for The Big Wild (www.thebigwild.org), which supports Canadian Parks and Wildlife Society (CPAWS) by selling decorative wine sacks and ‘2500km to Churchill’ t-shirts. We will present our donation at a gala we are putting on in November. This gala will be a dinner/auction, featuring our finest photography with various presentations.

Our website, www.2500kmtochurchill.ca will track our progress and will host a gallery of videos and photos. We are independent film producers with four projects to complete on the trip:

1. A 'Made for Youtube' outdoor survival series.
2. A ‘Weekly Update’ video program for the website.
3. A documentary of the canoe trip.
4. A "Connecting Canadians" program – As we travel across Canada, we will interview Canadians asking them their thoughts on quality of life in Canada and what they think is important to a sustainable future in their community and environment.

Chief Morin of Enoch Cree Nation has blessed our canoe, Mercedes-Wapusk, Wapusk being Cree for White Bear. As voyageurs, we will be delivering small handmade crafts from the Enoch community to town halls and community centers on route to Churchill.

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