Doug’s Note- I wrote up the following story for the MHS faculty on 5/10/99. It still blows me away.
I was going to tell this story to you at the faculty meeting last Wednesday, but Teresa Rosen’s presentation didn’t leave me any time, so I thought I’d write it up for you.
I led a 16-day Mini-School trip to the Southwest (Utah) in April, the highlight of which was an 8-day desert wilderness canoe trip down the Green and Colorado Rivers through Canyonlands National Park, following (to a limited extent) the 1869 journey of exploration of Major John Wesley Powell.
When I lead a canoe trip by myself, I paddle a solo canoe, a Bell Merlin, which enables me to maneuver easily around the group, keeping tabs on everyone, setting the pace.
During the 8 days on the river our group saw only 5 or 6 other people. On the 4th morning, about 8:00, after loading my canoe, I drifted downriver 1/4 mile, pulled into an eddy and waited for the kids to get loaded up and underway. While waiting, I saw a man in a solo canoe paddling down the river. I decided to paddle out and shoot the breeze with him for a bit.
We introduced ourselves and I told him what I was doing. His name was Terry Kelly, from N. Sioux City, SD. He was paddling a solo Kevlar We-No-Nah canoe called an Encounter. We talked about boats a bit. He knew my friend, Ted Bell, builder of my boat. In fact, he owned one of Ted’s boats, the Starfire. I also own two We-No-Nah canoes, so I asked him how he liked the Encounter. He said he didn’t like it real well, felt it was more boat than he needed. He said that after this trip he thought he’d donate it to the UMD canoeing and kayaking program. He’d taken a couple courses from them. I told him I thought that’d be cool. We parted company.
On Monday, May 3rd, a few days after I got back, I got a call from Terry Kelly. He’d tracked me down. He said he thought about it on the drive home and decided to donate his canoe to the Mini-School Program. He said it seemed like Mini-School was a program that did good things for kids and hoped this donation would further our efforts.
I met him in Faribault last Saturday and he gave me the boat. New, this boat costs $1,500.00. It’s in good shape and is worth at least $1,000.00. It weights 38 pounds. It’ll be a great Mini-School instructor boat.
Weird, huh, and heartwarming! I’d talked to this guy a total of 10 minutes and he gave me a thousand dollar boat. Now, I also could use a new sports utility vehicle…
Doug Berg