Published: Saturday, June 23, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

As part of a newly built relationship between the Yankton School District (YSD) and Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services (LCBHS), a drug and alcohol counselor will be present in the middle and high school beginning this coming school year.

The goal is to have the counselor hired next month, train the person in August, and have the counselor ready to start work at the beginning of the school year.

The funding for the new position will come from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Block Grant, which runs year-to-year. However, officials are optimistic that the funding will be available for a number of years. The counselor will also be employed by LCBHS, not the YSD.

If the funding did not become available, the schools wanted to at least get some preventative curriculum and on-going activities started.

Officials hope the new counselor will help curb drug and alcohol use in the school district which increased substantially last year.

“The overall goal of the partnership is to establish an evidence-based prevention program,” said Dr. Tom Stanage, executive director of Yankton’s Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services. “This is a prevention program that has demonstrated effectiveness. It is focused both on middle school and high school youth.”

There are several components of Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) including designing alcohol, drug and tobacco curriculum aimed at helping students resist pressures to use substances and correcting misperceptions about substances; a parent program that includes parental education and informational meetings; individual and group counseling; and school-wide activities and promotional materials to increase the perception of the harm of substance abuse.

According to Stanage, the project was chosen after YSD and LCBHS staff reviewed similar programs that were already in place at other schools in the area. Staff members also consulted with prevention experts on the best program for students.

“Several other programs were also considered during this process,” Stanage said. “This one was chosen because it was one of the more comprehensive programs.”

The counselor will also communicate with school staff and administrators, and present information about the program at faculty and departmental meetings.

The partnership between YSD and LCBHS came as a result of an effort led by Dr. Joseph Gertsema, superintendent of YSD, to involve the community in an effort to address the alcohol and drug use problems in Yankton schools.

The counselor’s main role in the middle school will be to focus on prevention.

“We are excited about the upcoming position of a drug and alcohol counselor for the Yankton School District,” said Todd Dvoracek, principal of Yankton Middle School. “The main role at the middle school will be working on prevention.

“We are working hard at making sure that the right person is hired for the job,” Dvoracek added. “Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health has been outstanding in getting this effort into place.”

Dr. Wayne Kindle, principal of Yankton High School, thinks the new counselor will have a significant impact on drug and alcohol use in the district.

“The impact of a new counselor will be a tremendous addition to our staffing needs, in particular for drug and alcohol prevention, awareness and care,” he said.

Kindle added that drug and alcohol use is not just a concern locally, as it is also a state and national issue.

He thinks that it is easier for students to obtain both drugs and alcohol, which is a great concern. He also added that he believes there seem to be places available for students to have house parties. However, students do not necessarily need a house to use drugs or alcohol, which is a concern knowing that students would be operating vehicles under the influence.

“We chose the counselor to provide students and parents with a person who could address the areas of drug and alcohol prevention, awareness and care,” Kindle said. “We really believe that if our parents and students have a resource person available to them, we can all work as a team and have a positive impact on this area.”

Stanage added, “While no one knows why there may have been an increase in problems last year, part of the solution is in the kind of community partnerships represented by this initiative,”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andrewatwal

http://yankton.net/articles/2012/06/23/community/doc4fe5397fe80ac126284782.txt

Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 1:10 AM CDT

Tuesday’s seventh annual Ag Gala, hosted by the Agri-Business Committee of the Yankton Chamber of Commerce, featured a wine-tasting, auctions and honors in celebration of local agriculture.

But the gala, held at the Riverfront Event Center, was also about sowing the seeds for the future.

One of the big events of the night was the announcement of the recipients of the Promoting Agricultural Youth (P.A.Y.) Scholarships.

The Agri-Business Committee began the scholarship in 2008, which, at that time, was funded solely by the donations from producers and agri-businesses and money from the gala event. Now, 100 percent of the proceeds from auction items go back into funding for the scholarship.

During the first two years of the scholarship, a Yankton-area high school senior looking to go into an agriculture-related career would get $500 for his or her college expenses. However, it quickly grew to a $1,000 scholarship and now is up to $2,000, split among the two recipients.

Last year the auction helped raise $5,000 for the scholarship. This year, that number jumped up to $11,700.

“The P.A.Y. Scholarship is becoming a larger focus of the event,” said Carmen Schramm, director of Chamber Services in Yankton. “It is important to keep youth in agriculture.”

She added that the goal next year is to take the scholarship funding up to $3,000, which would be a 50 percent increase from where it is this year.

This year’s P.A.Y. Scholarship winners are Slade Mutchelknaus, who went to Freeman High School, and Timothy Sternhagen, who attended Scotland High School.

Mutchelknaus was raised on a farm near Marion, and began his own lawn service which has grown from about 10 lawns when he started it in seventh grade, to more than 30 this summer. He will pursue his degree in landscape architecture at South Dakota State University. In high school he was involved in sports, band, chorus, drama, Future Farmers of America (FFA), student council and church.

“It’s really nice to get this scholarship,” he said. “Agriculture really instills family values, morals and work ethic.”

He said he found out about the scholarship through his high school counselor last April and decided to apply. His family owns about 320 acres of property nine miles southeast of Freeman and they have about 30-40 cattle on the farm.

“My dad never pressured me to go into agriculture,” Mutchelknaus said. “He really didn’t even ask me to do too many chores on the farm.”

He mentioned that agriculture and living on a farm teaches values like working your hardest at what you’re doing, not shorthanding other people and helping out your neighbors and family.

He added that he is excited to learn more about landscape architecture when he begins his studies at SDSU this fall.

Sternhagen grew up on a family farm in the Lesterville and Scotland areas and hopes to continue farming after college. He will serve as an advisor to the FFA chapter of Scotland. In high school he was involved with mentoring, FFA, Boys State, sports, Luther League, chorus and band. Sternhagen will continue his education at USD where he will enroll in the pre-vet program. He will also be involved in the Army ROTC program.

“The scholarship is really going to help a lot with how much tuition costs now,” Sternhagen said. “It is a great honor to get something like this.

“Farming has taught me everything about life,” he added. “You need to work hard to accomplish your goals.”

Justin Wagner, who is on the committee for the scholarship, said that the funding continues to grow through the auctions that take place at the gala.

“This year we had a lot of good applicants for the scholarship,” he said. “These two winners stood out for exactly what we’re looking for.”

Wagner noted that the committee received over a dozen applications this year.

Eric Koenigs, chairperson for the Agri-Business Committee in Yankton, said that the scholarships are available for anyone who wants to go into an agriculture field.

“Nobody really focuses on agriculture or agri-business anymore,” he said. “We want to help take care of that segment through these scholarships”

Koenigs added that the two scholarship winners this year were exceptional kids, who have a history in agriculture and are dedicated to it.

Tuesday’s keynote speaker was Bruce Vincent, who is a third-generation logger from Montana. His speech focused on how to change public perceptions of rural living.

“As people in farming and forestry, we only operate with consent of the public,” Vincent said. “We lost our consent.”

He added that people from urban areas are vacationing to rural destinations and falling in love with those areas.

“They leave with a desire to protect those last best places,” he said.

The event also honored this year’s Farm Family of the Year, Bob and Marilyn Langstad from Mayfield.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 1:08 AM CDT

Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 1:08 AM CDT

Published: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 1:11 AM CDT

Republican voters in Yankton County settled on the slates for the District 18 House race and the Yankton County Commission during Tuesday’s primary elections.

Incumbent Mark Johnson and challenger Jim Van Osdel came away victorious in the Yankton County Commission primary on Tuesday.

The two will now face off with incumbent Donna Freng, who is an independent, in November for the two open county commission seats.

Meanwhile, Mike Stevens and Thomas Stotz advanced as District 18 state representative candidates and will now face Democrats Bernie Hunhoff and Charlie Gross in the November general election.

In the County Commission primary, Johnson received 804 votes, or about 43 percent, while Van Osdel received 716 votes, or approximately 38 percent. Challenger Connie Kerns-Grams received about 19 percent of the vote (360 votes).

Johnson said he was hoping for better numbers, but was still the top vote-getter on the night.

“We need to get people to recognize the work of the commission over the past seven years,” Johnson said. He added, “We want people to know what we’ve done, and that we are there working for every part of the           community.”

He went on to congratulate Van Osdel on a well-run primary and said that he will be a worthy opponent in the fall general election along with Freng. He noted that Van Osdel has high name recognition within the community.

Van Osdel said he is very pleased with the results. He said that he now plans on meeting as many people as possible before the November general election.

“It is very complimentary when people go to the voting booth and cast a ballet for me,” Van Osdel added.

In the state House race, Stotz collected 738 votes for about 35 percent, followed by Stevens with 710 votes for about 33 percent. Matt Stone was third with 586 votes for about 27 percent, while Thomas Bixler collected 98 votes for about 4.6 percent.

Stotz said he is thankful for the other candidates who were willing to put their names on the ballot and is looking forward to competing later this fall.

He said the campaign this fall will take a lot more work than the primary election did.

“One of my political friends who I have been working with told me to just relax for a month and then start putting together fund raisers and start campaigning and talking with people,” Stotz said.

Stevens could not be reached for comment.

County Auditor Paula Jones said the winners will be officially declared after the statewide   canvas.

Jones said although the day went well, voter turnout was low. The final turnout tall was just 16.9 percent.

“It always bothers me when people don’t get out and vote,” Jones said. “It’s sad because everyone does have a right to vote and I think they should exercise it.”

Jones said she has noticed voter turnout goes in cycles.

“We see cycles of apathy if there isn’t something that seems to grab people like a big issue or a candidate they’re passionate about,” Jones said.

Also, Yankton native Matt Varilek won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House race. In Yankton County, he received 872 votes while Jeff Barth collected 125 votes.

Varilek will face Rep. Kristi Noem in the fall general election.

Published: Friday, June 8, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

At the start of her life, Jill Furan lived like a normal kid. She enjoyed being outside and socializing with her friends, much like the other children around her.

However, around the age of 10, things changed — she started to notice that something wasn’t quite right. Now, instead of wanting to be outside with her friends during recess, she would instead stay inside and help the school guidance counselor with filing papers. By the time she hit seventh grade, she lost all of her friends and started cutting and burning herself. She started dressing in  black clothing, began listening to dark music and watching dark movies. Some of her role models in middle school included Kurt Cobain and Sylvia Plathe, who had their own mental problems as well.

Furan’s parents were unaware of any of the problems that their daughter was going through   mentally.

She even resorted to cutting and burning herself during her middle school years.

“I felt completely alone and I was completely alone because no one else around me felt this way,” Furan said.

Furan, the 2012 Miss South Dakota International, told her story Thursday in a presentation titled “A Different Kind Of Lifeguard: Blowing The Whistle On Depression, Self-Injury and Suicide,” at the 2012 Mental Wellness Conference at Mount Marty College. The event was hosted by Yankton Area Mental Wellness, Inc.

It wasn’t until the seventh grade that Furan finally gained the courage to tell her parents the problems she was dealing with. However, her parents thought that her problems were just a phase and did not want to take her to see a doctor despite a history of depressive disorders in the family.

“After my parents told me to stop cutting, I started to take small amounts of pills like Ibuprofen and Tylenol,” Furan added.

By the time she was 13, she began considering suicide and she thought that pills would do it.  A short time later, she swallowed 30 aspirin in a failed effort to take her own life.

“I very truly wanted to die,” Furan said.

Furan said the doctors she began seeing in high school thought it was not a big deal that she was cutting and said that she was doing it to gain attention.

“I needed attention, I needed someone to step in and health,” she said. “I graduated high school and began to be full of hope for the future — I bought into the power of positive thinking.”

So, Furan said that when she started school, she was not going to take her medicine or see a counselor.

However, this did not work out well.

She finally started seeing a counselor at school, and she said that she did not want her condition to scare away any of her new friends or her boyfriend.

On Thursday, Furan praised the institutions that are willing to address the issue.

“It’s wonderful that colleges recognize depression as a disability,” she added.

But after about her first year of college, “everything fell apart,” she said.

During a routine physical, Furan’s doctor told her that she needed to go back on her medications immediately. The doctor told her that if she did not begin taking her medicine again, she would not be able to accomplish any of the goals that she had for the future.

The problem only got worse when she began drinking heavily when she turned 21.

However, with help from medicine and her counselors, she has been able to turn her life around.

Furan attended South Dakota State University, graduating last month with a bachelor’s in English. Currently she is seeking a job as a counselor.

Furan offered a lot of tips and advice for those battling depressing during her presentation.

One of the tips she gave was encouraging those that have a depressive disorder to get a pet that requires minimal maintenance because of the therapy that it can provide as it can act as someone to talk to.

Furan found a toad outside her house seven months ago, and she adopted it and now cares for it. She said it is one of the best things in her life and every time she gets depressed her mom asks what the toad would do without her.

“I hope that I can help someone find one reason to live, no matter how small it is,” Furan said.

Furan also said diet and exercise help ease her depression.

“When I eat crap food, I then feel like crap,” she remarked.

She also said that people that cut themselves should substitute that for other physically painful activities, like running or other forms of exercise.

Furan advised that kids in school should pay attention to their friends’ behaviors that could indicate signs of depression or suicide. These signs often include marks from potential self-injury, the child giving things of sentimental and financial value away, any sudden change in behavior or the mentioning or use of drugs and alcohol.

She added that if kids have friends with these symptoms, they should notify a counselor or trusted adult and act as an adult themselves in order to potentially help, or even save, a friend in need.

One of Furan’s biggest goals in life is to be a mother, and she admitted that she is “terrified about the potential of her future kids to be depressed.” However, she added that because she has battled with depression, it could be easier for her to know what her kids might be going through.

Furan told attendees Thursday that even if they have a depressive disorder, they can still do anything, even though it might be more difficult.

“One thing that people can never lose is hope,” Furan said. “No matter how little the hope is at times, I still have it.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

The Yankton School District has formed a relationship with the Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Center that provides a drug and alcohol counselor for the high school and middle school.

The school board announced the plan at its meeting on Monday.

The objective is to have the counselor hired in July, train the person in August and have the counselor be ready to start for the new school year.

One of the goals of the program is to “build a bridge” between the community, school and school district, and Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Center to prevent and reduce the use of drugs and alcohol.

Superintendent Dr. Joseph Gertsema echoed a similar belief when he stated, “The program is building a bridge for our children’s future.”

The funding for the new position will be from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Block Grant, which runs year-to-year. But the school board is optimistic the funding will be available for a number of years.

The program will also help in fostering educational programs and activities that will increase prevention and awareness of drugs and alcohol.

Members of the board noted the new hire will be an employee of the Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Center and not the Yankton School District. The employee will work from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on days when school is in session and children are present.

Specific duties of the counselor include working with the students, both individually and in small groups; implementing classroom education curriculum; and conducting school prevention and education activities.

The counselor will also communicate with school staff and administrators, and present information about the program at faculty and departmental meetings.

The Yankton School District experienced a drastic increase in drugs and alcohol use last year, and officials hope this program will help put an end to that.

Other business taking place at the school board meeting included the elementary schools in the district changing the wording on their handbook— wording that Webster principal Melanie Ryken called “outdated.”

“We tried to make topics relevant to the kids in a way parents could understand it, too,” Ryken said.

Attendance policy at the elementary schools was also updated. The new policy will allow officials to show up at the home of a student unexcused from school in order to make sure the child is OK and accounted for.

The meeting also featured an updating of the Yankton High School electronics policy. The previous policy did not allow students to have their cell phones at any time while at school. The new policy allows students to have the phones with them, but the devices must be turned off. The high school is also going to allow more Kindles and E-Readers as long as they are in use for school-related work and only when they are allowed to be in use.

“We need to get on board with it, and this is the first step,” Dr. Wayne Kindle, principal of Yankton High School, said.

The next board meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. July 9 in the YSD administration building at 2410 West City Limits Road.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Saturday, June 9, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

As part of Mount Marty College’s 75th anniversary and its upcoming all-schools reunion, the institution has developed a project that helps preserve the memories and images of the past for all alumni, students and members of the public to enjoy.

The project involves collecting pictures and memorabilia from the past and putting them into scrapbooks.

So far, volunteers have about 200 scrapbooks in place, dating back from the time when the college operated as Mount Marty Academy, a high school. The books also contain artifacts from The Model School, which was an elementary school for the teacher education students at Mount Marty; the Sacred Heart School of Nursing; and Mount Marty  College.

Barb Rezac, chief advancement officer at Mount Marty, said she has been working on the project since she took the job in January.

The scrapbooks contain photos of students showing where they are today; pictures of students, coaches and faculty for each year of the scrapbook; programs from events during those years; The Moderator student newspapers; freshman directories; handbooks; and advertisements.

“It’s going really well, much smoother than we thought,” Rezac said. “We want to be able to allow people to take out the years they went to school here and remember certain things.”

She added that, once the college put out the word that they were looking for items for the scrapbooks, memorabilia starting coming in from all over.

Items have come from faculty members, alumni, and library archives.

Mary (Heirigs) Albrecht added that she would like to see photos of each graduating class for the scrapbooks.

Albrecht graduated from Mount Marty Academy in 1954 and then from Mount Marty College in 1958.

Albrecht and her husband used to own Paul’s Kwik Stop in Yankton. By looking at the photos in the scrapbooks, she was able to recall many of the dozens of students they employed during the years that they owned the     business.

Rezac said one of the more interesting items they have gotten for the books was a catalogue for the students at Mount Marty Academy from the 1931-32 school year. The catalogue contains everything from course requirements to items students needed to bring to school and what students needed to wear to class, social events and other times during the day.

“(In high school), we had to wear a dressy dress and we couldn’t wear anklets. We had to wear nylons,” Albrecht recalled.

One of her most fond memories was the bowling alley they had in a basement at Mount Marty Academy.

“We had to eat family style in the dining room when I went here (for college),” Albrecht added. “We would serve each other meals.”

Sister Ann Kessler, who graduated from Mount Marty in 1953 and went on to teach at the college for 40 years, said she is interested in seeing photos of people she has not seen in a while.

She is also fascinated by seeing her former students now as adults.

“It’s delightful to be able to go through the things,” she said.

Kessler added that there has become a true sense of tradition at Mount Marty, with many alumni sending their children and grandchildren to the school.

Sister Leonette Hoesing, who graduated from the high school in 1934 and is now 97 years old, recalled one of her most vivid memories from the times she had at the high school. She remembers walking over the Meridian Bridge from Nebraska to get to the high school. She would get dropped off right on the Nebraska-South Dakota border because there was a toll at the time of about one dollar for a car one-way. However it was only about 10 cents to walk over the bridge, so she would walk over the bridge to school each day.

The bridge became free to cross in 1953.

Sister Hoesing graduated from Mount Marty College in 1960.

Albrecht had a lot of memories of her times in the dorm rooms at Mount Marty.

She lived in the rainbow dorm room, and remembered there were curtains separating each dorm and bed area. The curtains were all different colors, which is how the dormitory got its name.

Students at that time, Albrecht recalls, would sleep on small beds, about the size of Army cots.

She also mentioned that when someone would get in trouble, their punishment would be to clean the bathrooms in the hall. However, these were cleaned during the day, so often times there would not be much cleaning to do if you got in trouble, she said.

Albrecht, along with her peers at the college, would be able to recognize what sister was walking down the hall based solely on the sound of how they walked.

Kessler remembered staying in a room with six or seven other people — the same room that now houses only two.

Private rooms were offered at that time at Mount Marty, which would house two people, but they were far more expensive than the other dorm rooms.

Rezac said that one of the goals of the scrapbooks is for alumni and current and prospective students to see “life in action” at Mount Marty from past years.

She said that she is fascinated by some of the early items in the scrapbooks just to see how this school was built.

Rezac wonders what scrapbooks will be like in the future because of the increased digital presence. She noted that the student newspaper is now online only, so it may not be possible for that to be included in future scrapbooking projects.

“It is important for parents to be able to show their kids what they did in college here,” Rezac said. “We tell people, rather than throwing things away from college, let us archive your stuff in our scrapbooks.”

She thinks that the scrapbooks will only get bigger after the reunion when alumni look at them and say, “I have this that I can add to the book.”

“We will continue to build the scrapbooks after the reunion is over,” Rezac added. “It will be a work in progress.”

“We need to study the past to know what built this place and where we need to go,” she said.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Thursday, June 14, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

After a spring filled with dire predictions about $5-a-gallon gas, the price of gasoline in South Dakota is down dramatically from where it was at this time last year.

Those low prices may be fueling a boom in local tourism numbers.

Jeff Van Meeteren, the regional park supervisor for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks said, that the numbers at Lewis and Clark Recreation Area are up drastically this year compared to last.

“We have had an excellent year so far and we anticipated that,” Van Meeteren said. “We are looking forward to continuing the good year.”

The lower gas prices should also help keep up that momentum from the start of the season.

The average price for a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline in Yankton was $3.421 on June 12. This is down 0.2 cents from last week and 14.5 cents from a month ago. On June 12 of last year, the average price for a gallon of gas in Yankton was $3.666.

Gas prices are also down in Vermillion. The average price in Vermillion is $3.466, which is down 10.4 cents from last month. The average price of gas in Vermillion at this point last year was $3.684.

The South Dakota state average for regular self-serve gasoline is $3.53 per gallon, which is slightly below the national average of $3.56.

Both the nationwide and state averages are down significantly from where they were last year. On June 12, 2011, the statewide average was $3.75 and the national average was $3.71 for a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline.

The price of gasoline peaked in early April 2011, when the average price for a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline was $3.94. The national retail price of gasoline has gone down in 55 of the last 57 days.

Marilyn Buskohl, spokeswoman for AAA South Dakota, believes the lower gasoline prices have big implications for tourism throughout the state.

“In quarter one of this year, gas prices were high so people became prepared for the prices to increase,” Buskohl said. “However, that has not been the case.”

She added that the lower prices give consumers more income to spend, which is positive for businesses and the communities as a whole.

“(The lower gas prices) should be very good for tourism,” she said.

However, Jacquie Fuks, executive director of the Southeast South Dakota Tourism Association, does not think that the lower gas prices have had a major impact on tourism in the area.

“I don’t think the lower prices will make all that much of a difference,” she said. “People work hard and deserve a               vacation.”

Fuks added that the increased tourism numbers are huge in a community like Yankton because people that come to town visiting spend money while they are here, which helps businesses keep their doors open.

She also noted that tourism numbers were up throughout the entire region, and said that the combination of lower gas prices, nice weather and no flooding this year have all contributed to it.

Overall, visitor members are up significantly in Yankton.

At the end of May, the numbers at Lewis and Clark Recreation Area were up 29 percent from where they were at this point last year.

However, Van Meeteren anticipates those numbers flattening out.

“We are hoping the numbers end up being up about 12 percent from last year when the season is over,” he said. “These could be as high as 15 percent.”

Last year was the first time in more than a decade hat tourism numbers were down in Yankton, which was attributed to the severe flooding that occurred. The numbers declined by about two percent last year, despite Lewis and Clark Recreation Area adding 41 new campsites— about a 10 percent increase from the number of sites they previously had.

“The higher the gas prices are, the more locally people travel,” he said. “They can make multiple trips to local parks, compared to just one trip to a national park.”

In addition to the lower gas prices, Van Meeteren said that weather is the biggest factor on the tourism numbers at Lewis and Clark Lake. He said that this years camping season began about three weeks earlier than previous years because of the nice weather.

“There has been a pent-up demand to go camping because of last years flooding,” Van Meeteren said.

APR 30 2012 ANDREW ATWAL NO COMMENTS

Two adventuresome bicyclists launch their plan to circle the Great Lakes on Tuesday.

Kris McNeil, 26, and Zach Chase, 25, who both graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2010, will begin the 5,300 mile journey in Duluth, Minn., returning home Aug. 5.  They will travel through two countries, eight states and about 20 major cities.

Zach Chase, left, and Kris McNeil. Photo: Bigwaterbike.com

“We will be traveling north from Duluth heading around the Canadian shores first,” Chase said. “When we get to Quebec City, we will cross the bridge and begin the southern United States shores.”

The first few days of the trip will be documented by friends from Vika Films.  Then they will shoot the rest of it themselves.

McNeil and Chase did a west coast bike trip in 2008 which took them a month to travel 1,702 miles through Washington, Oregon and California. The first 14 days it rained. The pair wrote journal entries on that trip which can be found on their Facebook page.

McNeil said that he did most of the planning of that trip.  Chase decided to join him at the last minute.

“We really didn’t know what we were doing,” McNeil said. “We had a plan but did not have any campsites set up.”

Although the west coast trip was good practice, the Great Lakes venture is much longer.

“It’s also more bold and adventurous,” McNeil said.

They have gotten over 7,000 webpage views and 460 likes on their Facebook page for the Great Lakes trip.

The inspiration for the Great Lakes trip came during their west coast bike tour.

“We were sitting in the mountains as our trip was coming to an end and we asked ourselves, ‘How can we do this back home?’” McNeil said.

Sweet logo. Photo: Bigwaterbike.com

Instead of just deciding to bike around Lake Superior, the two decided to do it big and bike around all of the Great Lakes.

Chase got the ball rolling in November 2010 and the two have been planning for the past year and a half.

They mapped out a website and their route. They decided to get business cards to make their trip more official among potential sponsors and other interested parties.

To gain credibility and help with expenses they decided to get sponsorships. During their first six to eight months of planning they only had four local sponsors. Since then, they have been able to secure several national sponsors. They have received an endorsement from Duluth Mayor Don Ness and sponsorship by the Sierra Club of Chippewa Valley, Wisc.

Endorsements are people that are helping to support the trip with their social status and clout. Sponsors are people and groups that have donated product or financial support.

They estimate the cost of the trip between $3,000 and $5,000, including camera gear. Film production costs may make that higher. Sponsors contributed about $2,000.

McNeil said that first and foremost, they are doing the trip for “us.” Both are very active outdoor people. Chase is an avid mountain climber.

“There is a sense of adventure we are seeking,” McNeil said.

The sense of the unknown and leaving home makes Chase a little nervous.

“Leaving all of your friends and family behind can make you a little homesick at times, but that eventually goes away and we also have a great relationship with each other so that helps as well,” Chase said

They hope that their documentary will help the public have a greater knowledge of the entire Great Lakes region, McNeil said. A person living on Lake Erie might not have knowledge about Lake Superior.

Another goal of the trip is to promote bike touring as a means of exploration and travel.

To prepare, they go to the gym several times each week. They bike as much as 80 miles a day while pulling trailers weighing 35 pounds when full with their gear.  On their trip they will average about 60 miles a day.

Photo: Bigwaterbike.com

The two plan on picking up food along the way at mini marts.

There are still unknowns, despite all of their planning.

They are bringing maps and a GPS, but they have never been to these areas before so they really don’t know where they are going. They are carefully planning their route through major and sometimes dangerous cities like Chicago and Detroit.

“We have learned how much people are easily willing to support you, to bike with you, to give you a place to stay, to give you food,” McNeil said.  

The two also hope to figure out their lives on the trip and get a sense of self-discovery.  McNeil is the event director for Fitger’s Brewhouse in Duluth. Chase is with the Conservation Corps of Minnesota in Duluth. After the trip is over, Chase wants to get his graduate degree in outdoor education.

A friend, Matt Brown, said the two love being outside.

If they were to jump out of an airplane and disappear for three months, chances are they would survive in the wilderness, Brown said. They are far more prepared for this trip then for their 2008 west coast trip, which was more about proving  that they could do a long bike trip, he said.

“Nothing will stop these guys.”

To find out more about the trip head over to bigwaterbike.com.

 

http://greatlakesecho.org/2012/04/30/duluth-bicyclists-to-circle-all-five-great-lakes/