April 12, 2010
Mike McKinnon
Seven young women will participate in the second edition of the Miss Mudfling pageant.
Well-received last year, the Miss Mudfling event added an extra fun element to the weekend 4×4 drag races. Cathy Barnard, Amber Hayes and Barb Jackson are organizing the competition this year.
The participants are all grade 10, 11 and 12 students at AHS, and all heard favourable reviews from last year’s crew of 12 participants.
Like last year, the event will kick off with a popular vote, which will be small factor in the list of judging criteria. (To vote, fill out the ballot in today’s paper (page 5 – copies are not acceptable) and drop it off at Home Hardware, Carrie’s Corner, D&L Grocery or White Otter Inn.)
There first task as contestants was to come up with a slogan for this year’s event. Chelsea Thorson’s creation – ‘Go DIG or go home’ – has gotten the nod in that department. You’ll be seeing that with all the advertising and promotion for the August 7-8 Mudfling.
Other tasks they must complete include four hours of volunteer service with a senior (not a relative), attendance at the June 5 Mudfling fund-raising dance “creatively dressed [as] the ideal Miss Atikokan Mudfling” complete with sash, selling 30 dance tickets (15 for the fund-raiser, 15 for the Mudfling weekend dance), and decoration of a Mudfling flatbed trailer that will be used (beginning July 2) to promote the Mudfling.
Finally, the participants will be involved in the Mudfling itself; winners will be announced on the Saturday of the big event, and Miss Mudfling and the two runners-up will present the driver trophies on Sunday.
• Haylee Foy – If there’s no mud flyin’, you better keep tryin’!
This Grade 11 student works at the Newstand. She thoroughly enjoyed designing a 20-page rap magazine as a school project, and that has her interested in graphic/website design as a career. She’s played on the school volleyball and basketball teams (and Atikokan Ringette for a couple of seasons), and is very busy this year with Outers. She’s active at Faith Lutheran Church, where she teaches Sunday School and was involved in the Vacation Bible School.
She likes the Atikokan Mudfling – but they’re not her first. “When I was a kid, I was living in Valley View, Alberta, and we regularly went to the local mudflings there,” she says
• Chelsea Thorson – Go DIG or go home!
Chelsea is a grade 12 student, who has been accepted into Lakehead University’s science program and is considering nursing as a career. The wilderness First Aid and CPR courses she took for Outers last year encouraged her interest in that area (teaching is also a possibility for this honour roll student).
Over the past few years she has volunteered with the TD-Canada Trust Green and Clean program, the Terry Fox Run, and as a ringette scorekeeper. She works summers at Quetico North, and is also an avid athlete (volleyball, basketball, soccer) and outdoors person (hunting, fishing, camping and four-wheeling).
• Riley Lesnick Boyd – If it ain’t runnin’, It ain’t muddin’!
This grade 12 student is headed into the Canadian Forces; she will start with the Reserves come September, when she turns 18. Riley was in the Air Cadets here for four years, and is keen on everything military, from the travel to the skills, hardware and camaraderie.
You may know her from the pool, where she is a regular lifeguard (she has NLS lifeguard designation, Bronze Medallion and Cross certificates, and all levels of CPR) and lesson instructor. Riley is also an animal lover (she has three dogs) and has volunteered at, and worked for, the Thunder Bay Humane Society.
• Allysa McEvoy – Call up a buddy. Let’s start getting’ muddy
Another honour roll student (grade 10), Allyssa is considering engineering as a career. She’s already got a good deal of hands-on experience: she built a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine, an exercise that fascinated here and came “pretty naturally”. She’s very comfortable in the auto shop, and is just now working on getting her licence (she turned 16 in January).
She’s also keen about Guitar Hero, enjoys gardening, and likes to help out where she can.
• Dakota Jordan – Jack it up! Rev it up! Mudd it up!
Not the youngest participant (she turned 16 March 27, two days before Taylor Veran), Dakota is a grade 10 student and another athlete. She was a leader on the junior basketball and volleyball teams this season, and attended the Legion’s Peace Gardens sports camp. She is working getting her NLS lifeguard papers (she already has her Bronze Cross).
Dakota says she’s a bit of an “outdoor freak” who even enjoyed some recent service time brushing trails. She’s always enjoyed going to ‘the bogs’, and participating in Miss Mudfling is a nice way of doing that.
• Taylor Veran – A Little Dirt Don’t Hurt
Taylor, a grade 10 student, is a lover of animals, both big ones (she has lots of riding experience) and little ones (her dog, Wiggles). She lists veterinarian as a career goal.
Last summer she worked at the ANFC, where she was involved in the kids’ programs and “cooked a lot of fish!”. She also volunteered at the Bass Classic, and has also served the Sno-Ho Club and Atikokan Community Fellowship. Taylor’s list of favourite activities includes badminton, skiing, and camping.
• Allyson Durand – If it ain’t flyin’, you ain’t tryin’!
Alyson’s AHS days are coming to a close this year, and she’s planning on the culinary arts program at Confederation College. Part of her interest in food preparation came from a stint as a co-op student in the kitchen at AHS.
Like all these young women, she leads a hectic extra-curricular life: sports (ringette, basketball and volleyball), Air Cadets (four years), and St. Pat’s Church choir. Her summers have always included a camp experience or two – she’s been to the Peace Garden camp three times, a couple of ringette camps and Air Cadet camps.
“I’m very much an outdoor girl,” she says – and that includes fishing, hiking, kayaking and waterskiing
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