Prairie Women on Snowmobiles capped off a week of riding with a banquet in Star City.
Ten riders from across the province took part in a six-day trek to promote awareness of breast cancer and fundraise for research for the disease. They raised a total of $144,406.36, with $47,875.68 going to the Canadian Cancer Society for breast cancer research and $96,530.68 going to the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency for new equipment.
“Every lady has their own reasons for riding,” said Candy Blair, second-time rider. “We know somebody or somebody in our family has been touched with cancer, not necessarily breast cancer, but everybody knows somebody.”
Blair rode for three women.
“For my friend Elaine, my sister [Sybil] who has non-Hodgkins lymphoma and another lazy we know, Carla Zozell from Lanigan.”
The Star City rider wanted to join the organization when she started riding snowmobiles.
“I wanted to be able to ride well enough and fast enough to ride for them, with them.”
PWOS rode from Hudson Bay to Yorkton, but the women were forced to ride in the bus for a day and a half in the Humboldt area due to a lack of snow.
“I was doing a lot of snow dancing,” said Blair about the snowless days leading up to the trek.
The Feb. 3 banquet capped off a day that started in Melfort and saw the women ride from Tisdale to Porcupine Plain to Mistatim.
“We try to select the route loosely on where some of us are from and if we can kind of predict the snow conditions, we try that as well. We also have communities that request us to come and see them,” explained Heather Mohr, who rode with PWOS and managed their Facebook group.
“I try to [post] a little bit of information and pictures at each of the stops,” said Mohr, who noted that the group saw responses from survivors and fans as well as from Premier Brad Wall.
When asked how it felt to ride with ten Saskatchewan women across the Northeast countryside, Blair had four words: “pretty awesome” and “girl power.”
