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Vern Fish,
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Vern is the former Executive Director of the Black Hawk County Conservation Board in Waterloo, Iowa. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Board and the Conservation Corps of Iowa/Minnesota. He is the president of the Black Hawk Creek Water & Soil Coalition and the Friends of Wabakimi Provincial Park. As an advocate for clean water, he also serves as the co-chair of the Cedar River Watershed Coalition and as an assistant commissioner for the Black Hawk County Soil and Water Conservation District. A passionate paddler he has run wild rivers from the Mexican border to Hudson Bay and north to the Arctic Circle.
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Douglass Blount, FOW Vice President
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A 1957 Quetico trip with his father introduced Doug to wilderness canoeing. He got back into serious wilderness canoeing in the 1999 with another Quetico trip with his son. Wilderness tripping became a passion which now includes 16 weeks with "Uncle" Phil and The Wabakimi Project. As a trip leader in 2008, his group made a west-to-east crossing of Wabakimi Park from Davies Lake to the Ogoki Resevoir. In 1969, upon completion of a 4-year stint in the US Navy serving on a destroyer and a net layer, he began a real estate career in which he is still active, operating a small brokerage firm. He is an avid skier, hot air balloon pilot and sailor.
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John Holmes, Secretary-Treasurer
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John is a Mechanical Engineer from Waterloo, Ontario who has done many canoe trips in Northern and Northwestern Ontario parks, including 28 weeks on The Wabakimi Project trips. An avid hiker, he and his wife have trekked in South America, Europe, Africa, Iceland, Greenland, the Canadian Rockies and New Zealand. John designs and builds bicycle frames in his spare time and is a keen road and MTB cyclist. Proper trip planning and safety, along with a good balance between trail work and fishing, photography, or relaxation time are a part of John's trips.
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Dave McTeague, Board Chair
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Dave is a former Oregon State Representative and retired small state agency administrator (chiropractic licensing board). Born in Minneapolis, he canoed the BWCAW in his youth; and since 1990 has paddled Quetico, Woodland Caribou, and four trips with the Wabakimi Project. As a legislator and conservation activist, Dave has worked on fishery and habitat restoration issues and is keenly interested in the preservation of the wildlife and beauty of the boreal forest. He lives in Milwaukie, Oregon with his wife Naomi and chronicles his canoe adventures on his Oregon Dave YouTube page.
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Mary Jean Blaisdell
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Mary Jean Blaisdell lives in Independence, Iowa. She is a retired elementary principal who loves wilderness paddling and camping. As a principal, she did annual presentations to young students about her trips in order to encourage them to seek outdoor activities and the wilderness. She currently serves on her local Buchanan County Conservation Board.
She has sea kayaked with a group to the Apostle Islands, gone on some local river paddling outings with others, has been on over 15 trips to the BW/Quetico areas, participated on 3 Wabakimi Project trips and has done 3 solo trips to the Boundary Waters.
Mary Jean Blaisdell lives in Independence, Iowa. She is a retired elementary principal who loves wilderness paddling and camping. As a principal, she did annual presentations to young students about her trips in order to encourage them to seek outdoor activities and the wilderness. She currently serves on her local Buchanan County Conservation Board.
She has sea kayaked with a group to the Apostle Islands, gone on some local river paddling outings with others, has been on over 15 trips to the BW/Quetico areas, participated on 3 Wabakimi Project trips and has done 3 solo trips to the Boundary Waters.
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Ken Babinchak
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Ken Babinchak is a happily retired school teacher. He has been canoeing for 29 summers. Ken participated in fifteen Wabakimi Project trips, six as a trip leader. He has extensive knowledge of The Wabakimi Area having covered over 475 kms of routes from the western reaches of Savant Lake, across the Albany River to the eastern edge at Abazotikichuan Lake and south to the Vale Lake area, as well as trips in the park interior. He currently co-ordinates and produces the FOW newsletters, manages the FOW Facebook page and will be co-managing the FOW webpage as the Communications Director. He lives in Toronto with his wife Elaine and canoe buddy Labrador retriever, Sherman.
Ken Babinchak is a happily retired school teacher. He has been canoeing for 29 summers. Ken participated in fifteen Wabakimi Project trips, six as a trip leader. He has extensive knowledge of The Wabakimi Area having covered over 475 kms of routes from the western reaches of Savant Lake, across the Albany River to the eastern edge at Abazotikichuan Lake and south to the Vale Lake area, as well as trips in the park interior. He currently co-ordinates and produces the FOW newsletters, manages the FOW Facebook page and will be co-managing the FOW webpage as the Communications Director. He lives in Toronto with his wife Elaine and canoe buddy Labrador retriever, Sherman.
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Amy Funk
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Amy Funk teaches Mental Health Nursing and Community Health Nursing at Illinois Wesleyan University. She loves to canoe, solo hike, geocache, camp, and travel internationally. A wanderer at heart, she prefers living out of a pack or a suitcase. She self-studies on the topic of survival skills. Some of her favorite places to explore are rural Illinois, the Pacific Northwest, Wabakimi, Banff, Kauai, and the Sonoran Desert. She is on several committees devoted to conservation, preservation of land, social justice and health care for the homeless.
Amy Funk teaches Mental Health Nursing and Community Health Nursing at Illinois Wesleyan University. She loves to canoe, solo hike, geocache, camp, and travel internationally. A wanderer at heart, she prefers living out of a pack or a suitcase. She self-studies on the topic of survival skills. Some of her favorite places to explore are rural Illinois, the Pacific Northwest, Wabakimi, Banff, Kauai, and the Sonoran Desert. She is on several committees devoted to conservation, preservation of land, social justice and health care for the homeless.
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Ray Tallent
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Ray manages a university greenhouse and teaches botany courses in Iowa City, Iowa. He has canoe-tripped in the Boundary Waters and Quetico since he was a teenager. Since meeting “Uncle Phil” Cotton in 2011 he has served on twelve weeks of Wabakimi Project trips. In 2018, he was able to join Vern Fish on a farther north trip to Nueltin Lake and the Thlewiaza River. All these experiences have served to foster a love for Canada’s boreal country and, of course, always the desire to paddle new waters.
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Randy Trudeau
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Randy lives in London Ontario. He is a retired high school science teacher. His interest in the outdoors began during his ‘Scouting Days’ as a youth. This interest was rekindled when he became a parent. He is proud to say that annual family canoe trips encouraged his children to appreciate our pristine landscapes. Mike, who lives in Calgary, spends his weekends hiking and fly fishing in the alpine valleys of the Rockies. Niki has been involved with a variety of polar experiences, and is currently guiding adventure cruises in Antarctica. Now, I share their outdoor activities!
He completed a trip along the West Coast Trail with Niki and recently hiked the Chilkoot Trail with Mike. His other interest - cycling - has more recently taken precedence. In his retirement, he has cycled Southern Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, B.C., and Oregon. His most memorable tours were a Cross Canada Ride in 2010 and a ride from Whitehorse, Yukon to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT in 2018. "It was amazing pitching my tent beside the Arctic Ocean."
He spent three consecutive summers working with the Wabakimi Project crews. He is excited to join 'The Friends of Wabakimi' team. Wabakimi Provincial Park is not well known in Southwestern Ontario. "Serving on the FOW board will give me the opportunity to make Ontarians more aware of this Natural Heritage gem."
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Barry Simon
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Barry Simon, B.S. (Engineering), first joined The Wabakimi Project in 2005. Since then, he has participated in six other reconnaissance expeditions–three as trip leader–and has been responsible for design and production of the Wabakimi Canoe Routes booklets. Barry has canoed in Algonquin, Quetico and Woodland Caribou in Ontario as well as the Sylvania Wilderness in the Michigan UP. In 2009, he paddled 264km on the Seal River to Hudson Bay and crossed Quetico on the occasion of the park's 100th anniversary. In 2015, he paddled 644Km of the Noatak River during his expedition as a crew member in Alaska.
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Tetcy DeBoer
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Tetcy De Boer grew up in PEI and currently lives in Strathroy, Ontario (Canada). She works at her local community credit union and loves getting out on the water as often as she can. One of her first canoe trips was with the Wabakimi Project in the area of Granite Lake and she was hooked. She has spent the last 10 years tripping in various Provincial Parks including Algonquin, the Kawartha Highlands, The French River, and her favorite, Killarney. She enjoys exploring local breweries, conservation areas and watersheds and has paddled long lengths of the Thames, Sydenham, Grand, Ausable and Saugeen Rivers with her husband Ray. She loves the paddling community and culture, and attending Canoecopia! Find me on Instagram: tetcyd
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Shawn Bell
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Shawn is a lawyer who lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Most of his time in a canoe is spent fishing the lakes between Thunder Bay and Armstrong. He has taken the train into Wabakimi a couple of times and cannot think of any sound more beautiful than the train rumbling away down the tracks. This past fall he woke up to the first snow of the year while midway through an October canoe trip in Quetico. He now thinks September might be a better time for a trip.