Snowmobile enthusiast rides for breast cancer research

Posted By Jennifer?Blake Progress Staff

Posted 9 months ago

Gerri Moeller will be riding with the Prairie Women on Snowmobiles this coming January to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. Photo submitted

Gerri Moeller has been involved with the Canadian Cancer Society for several years, and this year she is taking it a step further.

Each year for the past three years, Meadow Lake has been a part of the Prairie Women on Snowmobiles tour. The 10 participants of the eight-day tour have stopped in Meadow Lake, enjoying a banquet planned by the local organizing committee and raising awareness of the need to support breast cancer research.

This year, Moeller decided that she wanted to do more. She submitted her name to the provincial Prairie Women on Snowmobiles executive and was chosen as one of the 10 riders who will participate in the 2010 ride. She is the only rider from northwest Saskatchewan this year.

"The tour is eight days and we start in Regina Beach on January 29," explained Moeller.

"It ends on February 5 in Big River. We will stop in Meadow Lake on February 4."

Moeller said she decided she wanted to be a rider after last year's tour.

"I had the opportunity to coordinate Meadow Lakes PWOS fundraiser banquet in 2008 and 2009," she explained in her PWOS bio.

"This past year my family and I had the chance to meet the ladies on the trail and ride into town with them. Randy and I, along with a group of local riders had the opportunity to ride with the ladies to Chitek Lake the next morning. This is when I thought I would love to be a bigger part of this amazing experience of a lifetime."

She said her passion for the cause is also a big push to take on the challenge.

"I am riding in honour of my friend Stacey Lieffers who is a three-time breast cancer Survivor, and an incredibly strong person, and in memory of our little niece Kendra who we lost to leukemia in 1999. I believe to find a cure for one cancer will benefit all cancers."

Moeller said her goal to participate in the mission was $3,000, which she has raised already, but she hopes to keep going.

"That's the minimum I had to raise," she said. "I want to keep going and raise more."

To do that, Moeller said the club has done a lot of fundraising and has more events planned for the next month.

"We had our Halloween dance and we are auctioning off a Glen Scrimshaw print called 'Trail of Hope'," she said.

"That was my own personal fundraising. We are also doing a lot of little things like coat checks, and the local snowmobile club has come on board and is helping us plan a Boxing Day snowmobile rally."

Now, Moeller said she is just hoping there will be enough snow.

"I'm starting to get excited now that the snow is falling," she said. "Snowmobiling is one thing I love to do in the winter. It's going to be so much fun to do this ride."

For more information on the Prairie Women on Snowmobiles, or to pledge Moeller, visit www.prairiewomen.ca. All proceeds from the tour go to the Canadian Cancer Society to fund breast cancer research.